


DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER

by hereruha



Category: Alice Nine, LM.C, MORRIGAN (Japanese Band), the GazettE
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Drama, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, M/M, Supernatural - Freeform, Yaoi, hints of cannibalism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-08 00:22:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5476097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hereruha/pseuds/hereruha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>TO BE RE-WRITTEN</p><p>The country has been torn by war over 20 years. Takanori Matsumoto is a 17-year-old teenager who’s sent to a special school by his parents to be safe. He can’t be discovered right now, his species must stay hidden. However things won't turn out so good for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a native speaker.
> 
> The title of course comes from the GazettE's song.  
> Originally posted on LJ on 5th November 2015.

_“You can’t send me there mom, I should stay by your side.”_

_“This won’t be discussed anymore Takanori, you have to stay away from the capital, who knows what the emperor will do if he finds you.”_  
  
I winced, I hated it when my parents decided things on their own when it concerned me. This should have been my decision to make.  
  
_“I could fight.”_

 _“No way Takanori!”_  yelled my mom _. “You don’t control yourself enough to fight correctly, you’d end up killing everybody, enemies and allies.”_  
  
I sighed and looked outside, what could I do about that? I wasn’t good at self-control, I lost cool easily and it always ended in bloodshed. Each time it happened I didn’t even remember what I had done exactly, as if my mind somehow decided that it was better for me not to know.  
  
_“We’ll be there in a few minutes Takanori.”_  
  
I nodded, I couldn’t do anything to make her change her mind. She could have sold me to a noble from another country so she and my father would be safe, but they preferred to hide me from the emperor and all the others. The whole family had decided to protect me instead of themselves. They had declared I was a simple human when I was born, and each time I lost my mind they would just cover it up in one way or another. I never was suspected of anything.  
  
_“This is a good opportunity, you’ll be able to learn self-control correctly. The clan couldn’t teach you this properly as we were closely watched when we were not on a mission.”_ she said, ruffling my hair. _“With the camp’s training we won’t have to be with you for the most challenging missions anymore.”_

 _“What if the other students find out what I am?”_  I asked, slightly worried.

 _“They won’t. The teachers are family friends so they know what you are, they’ll be careful with you. Just try not to get in any trouble.”_  
  
I smiled, I wasn’t sure of how things would turn out but I had to look contented otherwise my mother would be even more worried than she already was. I didn’t trust the other students, none of them were human, they would feel that something was different with me. She knew that too, so even if she trusted the teachers, she couldn’t help herself but be wary of the teenagers I’d be living with.  
  
I lowered my head to look at my entwined fingers, the spell my mother had put on me hid my true appearance, but would it really last long enough for me to get out of there before my true self would be revealed? I didn’t want the others to see how I really looked like, it was already kind of uncomfortable in front of my family so in front of strangers… I knew they wouldn’t stop staring at me. Especially because I had no idea why I looked that way.  
  
_“Mom, why am I so different from you and the others?”_  
  
She looked at me with a faint smile, nobody wanted to tell me what was going on with me, but I knew that there was something wrong. Normally I shouldn’t have had all these problems, and yet… I couldn’t control myself. I had even killed a friend when I was a kid, but as I had no sense of morality back then, I just didn’t know what was wrong with what I had done. He pissed me off so he needed to be punished, that was the way I thought at the time. Still now I felt as if nothing really touched me, yet I tried to feel things as all the others did, being indifferent wasn’t possible now, not at war-time, it would definitely look dubious.  
  
_“I can’t tell you this right now Takanori.”_

_“Why?”_

_“It’s not the right time.”_

_“When will it be then? I need to know. How come I am the only one who still snaps so easily? Even Chisaki doesn’t anymore, and she’s 14.”_

_“You’re special, that’s why. You need to train more than the others, you’re stronger than all of us, you know that.”_  she answered, stroking my cheek with the back of her hand.  
  
Her eyes were full of love; I didn’t understand that. How could she be so gentle with me? I tried to kill her once, she should actually hate me, but no, she still cared about me, even more than before.  
  
The car stopped. That was it. I was starting a new life, away from the capital, away from my family and the duty that came with our name. My mother kissed me on the forehead while our chauffeur came to open the door.  
  
_“Don’t give your full name Takanori, use a nickname. If they find out that you’re a Matsumoto they’ll definitely become suspicious and maybe put themselves, and yourself, in danger.”_  
  
I nodded as I got out of the car. I took my suitcase and waved to my mother as the car was already leaving, she couldn’t stay out of the capital too long, it could be dangerous for her life. I sighed and went to the gates. A man was waiting for me. He was around 1m75, he had long red hair tied in a loose tail, they were brushing on his chest with the gentle breeze. Once he saw that I noticed him he smiled at me, his golden eyes sparkling of happiness, and maybe relief. If I remembered well his name was Yasuhiro Miyazaki, he was a long-time friend of my parents’. I had seen him a few times but never really spoke directly to him, I didn’t care about the others.  
  
_“Takanori, you’ve grown a lot since I last saw you.”_

 _“Not so much, I’m small.”_  
  
He laughed and let me walk into the enclosure. I shivered, it was as if something was scanning the inside of my body and mind, it must have been a spell that kept intruders away from this place.  
  
_“So, did Mayumi explain you what you would be doing here?”_ he asked me, taking me to a house.

_“Mom told me the Rosary Camp was a camp as well as a school. Most of the students here are trained to fight for some reasons she didn’t want to tell me, and I don’t really care. I’m here to learn self-control as this is my biggest issue.”_

_“That’s right, but you also have to enjoy this place, it’s not all about learning stuff.”_

_“I can’t let my guard down, having fun isn’t possible.”_ I answered.

_“Takanori, you’re a teenager.”_

_“So what? You know what I am, you know what I’ve done.”_ I groaned.

 _“That’s right, and being stressed won’t help you at all.”_  he sighed.

_“I’ll deal with things in my own way.”_

_“If you say so… I’m the headmaster so you can always come to me if something is bothering you.”_

_“I won’t need to.”_

_“Hm… By the way, have you picked a nickname? You can’t let the others know who you really are.”_

_“Ruki.”_  
  
He smiled hearing that and finally opened the door of the house. I took my shoes off and entered the first room, the living room. There were a few sofas and a flat screen television. Shelves covered one wall, there were a lot of books. I’d surely end up reading all of them so I wouldn’t have to deal with the other students. Yasuhiro took my suitcase and went upstairs.  
  
_“Here are the rooms. I suppose you understood that this house is a dorm.”_  he said, walking to the last room of the hall.  
  
I didn’t answer anything, he didn't need to tell me this, I wasn’t stupid. He opened the door and walked in. I followed him and gaped as I saw there were two beds in here.  
  
_“You must be kidding me…”_

_“What is it?”_

_“I can’t have a roommate, this isn’t good at all.”_  
  
He sighed as he put my suitcase on the bed next to the window.  
  
_“Ruki, you need to bond with people, having friends will help you.”_

 _“No, I can’t have friends anymore. I killed the last one I had.”_  
  
I sat on the bed, put my head in my hands and closed my eyes. This place wasn’t good for me, I would be forced to do things I wasn’t ready to do. I couldn’t have a friend, not yet. It might have been 10 years since that event, but it still haunted me somehow. It wasn’t guilt, I didn’t feel guilty at all. Killing people never made me feel that way. The problem was that it was the first time I clearly remembered killing someone out of anger. I remembered ripping his limbs from his body, stabbing him fierce-fully, even licking his blood. I was a monster, but this was my nature, I couldn’t deny it, I couldn’t change it.  
  
I felt a hand softly rubbing my back. I opened my eyes and saw Yasuhiro sitting next to me, a faint smile on his lips.  
  
_“It will be hard, but definitely worth it. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.”_  
  
I heard footsteps and the door was opened. There was noise in the rest of the house now that I paid attention, the other students must have come back from school. I watched Yasuhiro getting up, he walked towards the honey blonde teenager who had just entered the room, he was staring at me as if I were some sort of alien.  
  
_“Uruha, this is Ruki, your new roommate.”_  
  
None of us said anything.  
  
_“I’d like you to show him the rest of the house as well as the camp.”_  continued the headmaster.

 _“You want me to help a dwarf?”_  
  
My body tensed up as I heard that, this wasn’t good at all. Insults were something that made me snap easily, especially when it was about my height.  
  
_“Uruha, you better not anger him.”_

 _“He wouldn’t be able to do anything to me even if he wanted to.”_  
  
I gritted my teeth. Calm down Takanori, you don’t want to lose it after an hour only. Yasuhiro seemed to notice the inner fight I was having so he pulled the honey blonde guy outside the room and closed the door behind them. I could still hear bits of their conversation.  
  
_“You might think you’re almighty because you’re a fucking pureblood vampire, but don’t mess with Ruki, you’d regret it.”_  
  
Since when did a headmaster talk like this to one of his students? I didn’t even remember Yasuhiro swearing when he came to visit us.  
  
_“Would I? He’s just a kid, how old is he? 14?”_

 _“He’s 17, like you, and he surely has been through much more than you did. Your life wasn’t easy, but he had it worse.”_  
  
Silence. So that Uruha was a pureblood vampire? That sounded so cliché, a vampire who thought he was above everyone just because he was an aristocrat. Vampires had that reputation, and it seemed to not just be a rumour. I got up, feeling that I had calmed down, and went out of the room.  
  
_“It’s okay Yasuhiro, no need to protect me.”_  I said, sighing a little.

_“Ruki, your mother made me promise to help you out.”_

_“I don’t care what my mother asked you to do, she perfectly knows that I can break with no reason.”_  I retorted.

 _“I thought it happened only when you were angry.”_  
  
I looked away hearing that. Normally it was like that, but my body seemed to ask for blood from time to time, as if it was vital for me to kill.  
  
_“It doesn’t matter.”_  I said, and then looked at the vampire.  _“I’m fine with you not wanting to help me, I’ll just get my bearings by myself.”_  
  
His eyes were of a slight hazelnut colour, which was surprising. I thought he’d have red eyes, like I did under this appearance, even though we weren’t from the same species. Maybe pureblood vampires were different from the ones I had met in the streets. As they were born that way they maybe had some differences, I already knew they could go out in the sun while the others, who were human before, would just die when exposed to sunlight.  
  
_“How come you have red eyes? You definitely aren’t a vampire.”_  he said, staring at me.

 _“That’s none of your business.”_  I answered coldly.

 _“I’m leaving you, boys.”_  
  
We both looked at Yasuhiro, he must have had other things to deal with than care about me. But how could he leave now when he knew that I could just snap the other’s neck if he said something wrong?  
  
_“Uruha, you respect Ruki otherwise you know what’s waiting for you.”_ said the headmaster with a serious face.  
  
I saw the vampire gulped at those words. What the hell could Yasuhiro do to him? He clearly seemed to be afraid.  
  
_“And you Ruki, behave, keep calm. I know it won’t be easy, but it’s for your own good that you were sent here.”_  
  
I nodded, even though I wasn’t convinced about that whole ‘for your own good’ thing. He left us smiling as if he hadn’t just threatened the vampire that was standing in front of me. I sighed and went back into the room to unpack a few things. Now that I was taking my clothes out of my suitcase, I noticed that I had a lot of leather trousers, maybe I should have taken some “normal” ones, the other boys would definitely stare at me. I used to wear black leather trousers because I found it easier to wash blood from this material, but now that I was here I had to restrain myself, so I shoudn’t be covered in blood anymore, normally.  
  
_“So, are you coming?”_  
  
I frowned and glanced at the vampire, he was sitting on his bed, looking bored.  
  
_“What for?”_  I asked, closing my suitcase and putting it under my bed.

 _“I’ll make you visit the camp.”_  
  
I frowned even more hearing this. So now he wanted to help me?  
  
_“No need to force yourself, I said I’d be fine on my own.”_ I answered.

_“No, you won’t. You need someone to guide you the first days.”_

_“And you’d help me? I thought you didn’t want to do anything with a dwarf.”_  
  
He snorted, he clearly didn’t want to help me. Yasuhiro must have had something he could use against this vampire, otherwise why would he try to talk to me normally when he actually despised me?  
  
_“Just stop what you’re doing and come with me, it won’t take long.”_  
  
He got up and grasped my hand to pull me out of the room. He didn’t say much while we were walking, I heard his voice only when he had to explain me something. For example we had a private bathroom for the both of us only, but there was a bathtub only. The shower-room was upstairs. There were three floors in this house, the living room and a small kitchen, which was used only by a few, on the ground floor, bedrooms only on the first, and other bedrooms as well as the shower-room on the second. I wondered how many students we were.  
  
_“We are 25 in this house, in the other one they are 15. However that’s only for the students over 15 years old, there are other houses with younger students. ”_  answered the vampire to my silent question.  
  
He took me outside and we walked through the whole camp. It was huge, it almost could have been a small village. The school building was in gothic style, as well as the rest of the buildings here actually. A wall and a magical fence surrounded the camp. I sensed magic when I went inside the enclosure, if I hadn’t been authorised to get inside, I was sure something horrible would have happened to me. This place seemed to be safer than I thought. I looked at the honey blonde vampire walking in front of me, he was tall compared to me. He had to be around 1m80. He had an androgynous look, which could be quite troubling at first, but I couldn’t judge that. I was wearing make-up and skinny trousers so I would have been a hypocrite if I started judging people on their appearance. In fact, men wearing make-up wasn’t so unusual nowadays.  
  
_“Why are you here?”_  
  
I was a bit surprised to hear this question. Why would he bother about such a thing?  
  
_“My mother wants me to be safe.”_  I answered.  
  
He stopped for a few seconds so I could walk next to him.  
  
_“So it’s about safety? Why not sending you to another country then?”_

 _“Because she can’t get me out of the country without selling me to someone.”_  I mumbled.

 _“Wait, what?”_  
  
He seemed to be shocked. I thought everybody knew about the human smuggling that was going on between the riches.  
  
_“Since when have you been here?”_  I asked.

 _“I’ve been here since I was 8.”_  
  
So that’s why he didn’t know about this. He grew up in a kind of other world, he didn’t really know what was going on outside of the camp. I wished I had grown up in such an environment too.  
  
_“You have no idea of what’s going on in the country?”_

 _“Well, I know we’re at war, it was already the case when we were born, but I didn’t know that there was some kind of human trafficking.”_  he answered, opening the door to the dorm.

_“Well, only a few people go through this. The emperor watches some families so they can’t leave by the usual road, that’s why.”_

_“Who are you then?”_  
  
I shook my head, I couldn’t answer that. I had to keep my identity secret, I couldn’t let anyone discover what I really was, even though I wasn’t sure of what I was either. The fact that my mother wanted to hide my true appearance pushed me to think that there really was something wrong with me, and that it wasn’t something good.  
  
_“Takanori!”_  
  
I froze when I heard my first name. I look at the source of this voice and gaped at the boy who was smiling to me, how could this be possible? How could he be here?  
  
_“Masahito…”_  I whispered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a native speaker.
> 
> Originally posted on LJ on 16th November 2015.

I was startled, I didn’t know what to say or do. He came to me and hugged me tightly as Uruha stared at us with a puzzled look.

_“I’ve got so many things to tell you, I didn’t know that you-”_

I put my hand on his mouth so he wouldn’t say something I’d regret. I faintly smiled at Uruha and pushed the other one outside. We walked to a weeping willow and I finally took my hand off his mouth.

_“Why would you do this Takanori?”_

_“It’s Ruki, Masahito, don’t ever call me Takanori again.”_ I said coldly.

_“Why? What happened?”_

I gaped at the tall blonde, he couldn’t be serious.

_“Just kidding, I know we’re at war. Your parents must have decided to keep you away from the capital as everything is getting worse lately.”_

I sighed, he didn’t change at all. People most of the time thought he was a carefree person, but he actually was very aware of what was happening around him. He used to keep an eye on everything, already when we were kids. I sat on the ground and leaned my back on the tree, sighing slightly. He did the same, smiling widely to me.

_“Why are you so friendly?”_ I asked.

_“Because you’re my best friend.”_

_“I’m not, I don’t even understand how you can be here. I killed you.”_

I noticed him biting his lower lip. I didn’t understand how this was possible. How could he be alive? I clearly remembered his limbs lying on the ground, far from his trunk, blood everywhere in the room, myself covered in that same blood. I remembered his empty eyes, any possible spark of life gone.

_“Well… Yeah… Let’s say that your parents managed to save me.”_

I frowned, my parents saved him and didn’t say a word about it? Sure it wouldn’t have changed much as I didn’t feel anything after that, but still, how could they hide the fact that my best friend had survived?

_“I’m sorry for not reaching you before, but your parents said that it was better for me to not keep in touch with you.”_ he continued.

_“Sure, they just wanted me to not have a friend anymore.”_

_“What?”_  

He gaped at me when I said that. Did he think I had found another real friend? I seemed to be as innocent as before, but it might just have been a cover, and he knew it, deep inside himself, he knew it. I was convinced he knew what I had done after the accident. He surely had kept an eye on me, even though he was acting as if he didn’t know anything. I could see in his eyes that he knew something, but he didn’t seem to be afraid. He just couldn’t determine what was true and what wasn’t, he couldn’t be sure of whom I had murdered in cold blood and whom I hadn’t. That’s why he was keeping his mouth shut about this.

“ _After killing you I stopped seeing other kids, I didn’t feel guilty so you know, but I didn’t want to kill someone close to me again. Even though it seems like I haven’t killed you if you’re here. Tell me, how did they manage to bring you back?”_

_“I don’t know how they did. But you know, your family is one of the oldest in this country, older than the emperor’s. They have some knowledge no one else has.”_

I could only approve to this statement. My family knew things that were unknown by the rest of the population, but bringing someone back to life… They could do this with people of our species for a few hours only because our anatomy was quite different, but Masahito wasn’t like us, he was a fae.

_“Ruki, I’m sorry for what I did back then.”_

I laughed, I had to continue to fake all those emotions and reactions. I had to keep on being friendly with him.

_“Seriously? You don’t have to, we were kids. I should be the one to apologise, I’m the one who attacked you.”_

_“Well, I knew that this could happen and I still pissed you off.”_

_“Hm… Don’t worry, I don’t hold this against you. As I said, we were kids.”_

He smiled even more hearing me saying this. I smiled back, even though it was just a fake smile, as always. Masahito had changed, but I couldn’t forget his golden eyes, that’s why I immediately recognised him. He had dyed his black hair to blonde, he was really tall and thin, now that I paid attention, he maybe should eat more. If he was still like before he must have kept his habit of eating lollipops all the time.

_“You should call me Maya here, the others don’t know my real name.”_

_“So you’re hiding too?”_

_“Not really, it’s just that everybody uses nicknames so I decided to do the same before they knew who I was. And it’s better for me that they ignore it.”_

_“Yeah right… They talked about you on the news when it happened, even though nobody knows who you really are.”_

_“Exactly. What would be their reaction if they heard what had happened to me?”_

_“Well, it’s the same for me.”_

_“Why are you hiding actually? I don’t really understand why you have to hide the fact that you’re a Matsumoto. Nobody here is on the emperor’s side.”_

_“You never know. And I prefer it this way, being a Matsumoto means for them being one of those creatures everybody fears…”_

He ruffled my hair and pulled me for a hug, he still was a cuddly person. He smelled like raspberries, it was a comforting scent. I had smelled blood and gunpowder for too long already. My family was insane.

_“I don’t fear you, Ruki.”_

_“You should, it got worst.”_

He moved back and frowned, he didn’t understand how this could be possible.

_“How come? You’re 17, most of the time your species fully controls itself around 13 years old.”_

_“It seems like it’s not the case for me. I asked mom what I really was but she simply replied that it wasn’t the time yet, I just had to remember that I was special. You know that this appearance is partly an illusion.”_ I sighed as he nodded.

_“What are you thinking about?”_

I raised an eyebrow hearing his question, what did he mean?

_“Oh come on, you must have thought about something. I don’t know, maybe you’re a mixed race or something.”_

_“This would mean that my mother cheated on my father.”_ I frowned.

_“Right…”_

He stared into space. I faintly smiled and patted his left arm.

_“Don’t worry about this, she will tell me when she’s ready.”_

He nodded as I got up. I reached my hand for him to grab it and I helped him to get on his feet. I pouted a little when I noticed how tall he really was next to me, I didn’t pay attention before. Why the hell was I so small? Everybody in my family was over 1m70 and I was only 1m62!

_“I know what you’re thinking Ruki, but height doesn’t mean everything.”_ he said, laughing at the face I made.

I huffed and walked back to the dorm. He laughed even more and ruffled my hair, again. God, he really was enjoying to be taller than me.

I walked in and noticed some stares, I decided to ignore them and went to my room, Maya still following me. I had to admit that having someone with me, who knew what I was capable of, who had experienced it, was kind of comforting. At least I’d have someone to occupy me, someone I wouldn’t have to be suspicious of. I opened the door of my bedroom and noticed that Uruha wasn’t there, well, that was a good thing. Even if he seemed to less despise me after the visit of the camp, I didn’t feel at ease around him. There was something about him… He seemed familiar, his scent was the one of a Takashima and I didn’t like that, they were supposed to be dead, all of them, no exception.

Maya closed the door behind him and sat on my bed. He took the book I had taken out of my bag earlier and giggled.

_“You still read those?”_

_“I try to understand the way a normal brain works.”_ I muttered under my breath.

_“This is a tragedy Ruki, and those characters are clearly insane. How do you want to find any rational explanation?”_

_“Good question, I think I read those because my sister used to read them to me when I was younger.”_

_“Your sister definitely is weird, you don’t read this to a kid except if you want him to…”_

He didn’t finish his sentence. I frowned at that, what did he want to say? He shook his head and smiled again. I sat next to him and took a pack of cigarettes out of my pocket. I saw that Maya wasn’t pleased with me smoking but I ignored that and lit one stick up. I breathed some of the nicotine and felt my muscles loosen a bit.

_“How is Ayaka doing?”_ asked my friend.

_“She graduated from the university last year. Father thinks she should come home because she’s 25, which, according to him, is still too young to live alone.”_

_“What does she think about that? Did she say anything?”_

_“She told him to fuck off.”_ I replied, laughing.

Maya joined me, he used to have a crush on Ayaka when we were children, and he perfectly knew what kind of personality she had. My sister was the stubborn type, she never listened to our elders and always did as she pleased. In fact, even though I was convinced of not having any affection towards anyone, I knew that I loved her, in a sibling way. She was an exception. She had taken care of me as much as possible when she could, she was the only person I smiled at without having to force myself. However she perfectly knew that I had no heart, and she blamed herself and our parents for that, she clearly said it. She thought that if she had been there more often for me, I would have had some emotions, but I knew it wouldn’t have changed anything. There was something in me that prevented me from having any strong feelings, except anger, even though my anger issues were caused by something else. She used to say that someone had casted a spell on me, a spell that kept me from feeling anything. It used to make me laugh, but now I was wondering if it could have been the truth. My family had been quite affective, so it wasn’t that I grew up with my parents ignoring me or anything like that, but since I was a child I had never felt happy around them. I always thought of myself as a tool, because that’s what I was until today, a tool. I was used for killing, for tracking down our target when it would try to run away, to save its life. My family always praised me after that, but it didn’t feel right, they were hiding something from me. There was a difference between killing from anger and killing in cold blood. The first case was most of the time covered up and then ignored, I never remembered what happened when I snapped, what I did to Maya was an exception. However, murdering in cold blood was something else. It was something I was ordered to do, was paid to do, and I never thought about it twice, I just did it. I grew up thinking there was nothing wrong in what I did. It was as if there were two people inside of me, and sometimes one would take the upper hand on the other.

_“At least that didn’t change.”_

I came back to Earth hearing my friend’s voice.

_“Well, her behaviour didn’t really change, but she decided to go out in her real appearance.”_ I said.

_“Really? She doesn’t want to continue what your family does then?”_

_“She wants to go away so she thought she would stop hiding under some kind of decoy. She wants people to see her as she is.”_

_“Well, at least one sane person in your family.”_

_“Hey!”_

I punched him on the shoulder when I heard that. He winced at that, I maybe had used too much strength. He glared at me and rubbed his shoulder. I couldn’t keep myself calm and burst into laughter. His glare was so not intimidating.

_“Ruki!”_ he whined, making me laugh harder.

I could feel my stomach ache as I laughed. I never thought I’d feel that again. For once, I was sincerely laughing, I wasn’t forcing myself at all.

“What is going on in here?”

I wiped my tears away and looked up to see Uruha standing in the doorway. He was frowning, he clearly didn’t imagine me laughing like this. That was normal, the aura I had been giving off until now wasn’t a friendly one.

_“Nothing, Maya is just an idiot.”_

_“How can you say that, Ruki?”_ Maya whined again.

_“Aren’t we best friends?”_

_“Ugh, don’t pull that shit on me. You said you didn’t understand such a thing.”_ he huffed.

_“I changed my mind.”_

He rolled his eyes and got up.

_“I’m off, I’ve some things to do for Yasuhiro before supper.”_

I shrugged and laid down on my stomach. Now that Maya was gone, tiredness hit me hard. I hadn’t slept much for the past few days because of my very last mission. Now that I didn’t have to work anymore, I could feel that I was pushing myself too much during all these years. I never had a proper night, and these last few days were even worse. In four days I maybe had slept like five hours, it was a tough case so I couldn’t let my guard down. I yawned and saw through the window that it was slowly getting dark.

_“How do you know Maya?”_

I glanced at Uruha, he was sitting on his bed, his back leaned on the wall behind it. He wasn’t looking at me, he was writing something on his mobile phone, but I knew he was waiting for an answer.

_“We are childhood friends.”_ I answered.

_“Hm… What did he call you before? Takanori?”_

_“That’s not my name anymore so don’t use it.”_ I growled.

The vampire looked at me for a few seconds and shrugged before concentrating his gaze on his phone again. I sighed and closed my eyes, I didn’t care about supper, I wasn’t hungry and I was so tired that I might just faint in the middle of the canteen if I went there.

✡✡✡

_“Ruki, wake up.”_

I groaned and pushed the hand that was shaking me by the shoulder away. I opened my eyes and met Maya’s gaze. What was he doing here?

_“Come on, I’ll take you to the canteen.”_

_“I’m not hungry.”_ I grumbled, turning around not to face him anymore.

_“Ruki, you can’t stay here all alone, especially when you’re asleep.”_

I frowned at that statement, what did he mean by that? I sat and stretched my arms for a few seconds. When I looked outside I noticed that the sun had set, the moon was now the one shining. I stared at the indigo sky with some kind of apprehension, something was wrong. Something was about to change, I could feel it deep inside. I always had some kind of sixth sense, or maybe that was just my instinct, but anyway, I always felt it when something bad was about to happen. Actually, that was how my family had decided to send me here. I had had this ticking sound in my head going on for days before they finally understood that my life was in danger as long as I stayed in the capital city. Yet they didn’t want to tell me why exactly was the emperor a threat. If I hadn’t told them about that sound, I’d still be there.

_“I know you might find this ridiculous, but you seriously don’t want to stay alone in here, believe me. You’re new, you must have someone by your side all the time. You’ve been alone for twenty minutes, it’s already too much.”_ Maya continued, bringing my attention back to him.

I yawned and got up. I didn’t reply anything, there was nothing to say, he already knew what I thought. He grabbed my hand and forced me to follow him outside, the house was empty, everybody must have already headed to the cafeteria.

_“I didn’t think you’d let your guard down this way, you normally would sleep with one eye open.”_

_I could hear some worry in his voice._

_“I needed some rest.”_

_“Had a job before getting here?”_

_“Yeah, a though one.”_

_“Was it successful?”_

_“Very. And pleasurable.”_

I smirked at that. I had to admit that even though my last mission wasn’t an easy one, I had a lot of pleasure executing it. I actually never thought my parents would let me do such a mission again, but they must have thought that giving me some pleasure before locking me here was the only way to sooth my wrath. I was mad when I learnt I’d have to come here, this was their way of apologising. They gave me a toy, or at least something like that, and once I was done with it I just had to dispose of it.

_“What kind of pleasure are you talking about?”_ asked Maya, a bit confused.

_“What if I say that there wasn’t just one kind of pleasure involved?”_

_“Okay, I won’t ask anymore, you surely are twisted, your cousin definitely came to you at some point.”_

I laughed at that. He had no idea how much I had changed since we last saw each other, teenage years clearly changed people, and my family had a huge influence too.

We reached a single-storey house and walked inside. I frowned seeing so many people in here: adults, teenagers, children… It was so noisy, I’d surely get a headache. I should have stayed in bed, I wasn’t even hungry, why did I come again? Ah yes, not to worry my best friend. What an idiot, I highly doubted anything would happen to me here.

I noticed that all the adults were sitting around three round tables, they must have been the teachers. Yasuhiro was among them. When he saw me he smiled at me but I just ignored that. I looked at Maya who was already pulling me towards one table with two free seats. He forced me to sit down and wait while he would get us some food from the kitchen. Normally it was brought to the table, but as we were late he had to go and get it himself. I tried to make him understand that I wouldn’t eat but he didn’t listen to me and just walked away. I ran my hand through my hair and sighed in defeat.

_“So you’re the new one?”_

I looked up and locked eyes with a blonde guy. He had a childish face but he clearly was at least my age, his ice-blue eyes were piercing me through, he was trying to find out what I was, I could feel it.

_“I am.”_ I answered coldly.

_“You’re not giving the same friendly aura as when you’re with Maya.”_

_“So what? I’m not here to make friends.”_

_“How come you’re so close to him then?”_

_“He’s pushy, and we’ve known each other for a while already.”_ I sighed.

_“What are you?”_

I looked at the one who just asked me that. This one had silvery blonde hair and golden eyes, his irises were stained with what could have been described as red dots, like blood drops. He was the curious type, well, all of them seemed to be. Uruha was sitting at this table too, but he didn’t seem to pay attention to what was going on, even though I knew this was just his outward appearance. Next to him sat a blonde-haired guy with a band on his noise. He had curled black horns and I could see a tail slowly moving behind him, that one sent an unfriendly aura to me. He stared at me as if he wanted to kill me, I knew that look because I often had it too. He had grey eyes, as if they were liquid silver, which was odd. I’d never seen a demon with such an eye colour before. Next to him was a raven-haired male who had dark obsidian irises, he actually was smiling to me. The other one next to him had the same behaviour… No, he smiled even more. That one had brown hair with blond tips, his aura was weird though. I couldn’t sense what he was exactly, I felt magic, but that was all.

_“Why should I tell you?”_ I finally asked.

_“You’re going to be around for a while, aren’t you? Better tell us what you are.”_

_“I don’t think so, what I am is none of your business.” I answered._

_“Shou, don’t ask him what he is, he won’t tell you.”_

I turned my head to look behind me and saw Maya with two trays. He put one in front of me and then sat. I looked at the food on the tray, it looked appetising but I wasn’t hungry, and there was something missing. Something I couldn’t tell the others about. I wasn’t even sure my parents had told Yasuhiro about that detail, it wasn’t something they liked to talk about, they preferred to ignore it as it wasn’t something normal for our kind. I licked my fangs at the thought of what I needed, I’d have to sneak out tonight.

_“Why? It’s always easier to know what the others are.”_ asked the silvery blonde male.

_“Do you know what Kai is then?”_

The one named Kai seemed to be the one I had a weird feeling about. I noticed him straightening up when he heard is name being mentioned.

_“Well, Kai and that boy don’t give the same feeling.”_

I snorted at that. They all frowned.

_“Sorry for not being the smiling kind of guy, I’m not here to be all nice to the others. I’m not a hypocrite.”_

_“I’m not a-“_ started Kai.

_“I know, I can sense that you’re completely honest about your feelings."_ I cut him off, faintly smiling to him to reassure him. _“What I mean is that I don’t want to fool around with people, I’ve done it enough in the past.”_

Maya stared at me, slightly confused, but didn’t say a word.

_“You say that as if you wanted to be honest with people, but you’re not telling us what you are.”_ stated the demon with silver eyes.

I was a little startled by his tone. There was some hatred in it, what I saw in his eyes was also expressed in his voice. I shook my head and sighed.

_“There are things that better stay unknown.”_ I answered, looking at my black-varnished nails.

_“I have to agree on this guys.”_ said my best friend.

_“Why?”_ they all asked.

_“You really don’t want to know what Ruki is, it would just bring you problems. Moreover, he wasn’t sent here to talk about himself.”_

I rolled my eyes and decided to eat, I maybe wasn’t hungry for this kind of food, but there was nothing else to do. I didn’t want to speak to these people, they didn’t know when to stop.

_“Somehow I can agree with Maya, we don’t know everything about each other either.”_ said the raven-haired male.

_“But we know enough to trust each other, Aoi.”_ retorted the blond with spiky hair.

I chuckled, yeah sure, they knew each other very well. I could already sense that each of them had a secret that they preferred to stay hidden, which, of course was normal. But those secrets seemed to be heavier than they thought.

_“Well, here’s something about me.”_ I started.

_“Ruki, don’t say anything stupid…”_ sighed Maya, giving me a disapproving look.

_“Nobody can trust me, not even Maya because he never knows what I can possibly do to him if he pisses me off.”_ I ended.

They all frowned. This was up to them to understand what I meant by this. I didn’t clearly say that I actually killed when I was angered, but if they thought enough about it, they would understand. If they did understand, it would maybe stop them from being too curious.

_“Ruki, stop messing with people’s minds, you already were doing this when we were kids. They were all scared of us because of that.”_

_“I’m not messing with anything or anyone. I’m just telling the truth, if they understand what I mean, that’s something else.”_ I sighed. _“And those kids were cowards, they were too scared to stay around me, my mind games had nothing to do with that.”_

_“They won’t understand because they don’t know what you are.”_

I patted Maya’s back hearing hurt in his voice, I knew I was giving him a hard time. He had some difficulties in the past to get accepted by the others because of his status, and now that he had friends here, he clearly didn’t want to lose them because of me. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t the kind of person to be nice to people and respect the others if they annoyed me. But still, for once I decided to save the appearance and tell them something that maybe would calm their curiosity for a while.

_“Let’s put it this way. I don’t really know what I am.”_ I stated, playing with my chopsticks.

_“You don’t have to tell them about that, Ruki.”_

I smiled at Maya and shrugged, making him understand that I didn’t care because I wasn’t really giving them an important piece of information. They still wouldn’t know what my family was.

_“What do you mean?”_

I was surprised to hear Uruha, I thought he would question me once we’d be back in our room.

_“Well, it’s clear, I don’t know what I am.”_

_“That’s not possible, you wouldn’t be here if you really had no idea.”_ said the demon, whose name was still unknown to me.

_“I have only a part of the truth in my grasp, that’s why I’m not willing to tell you anything.”_

_“So how does Maya know?”_ asked Shou.

_“We were almost brought up together at some point, it was impossible for him to ignore what was going on with me.”_

_“That-”_

He couldn’t finish his sentence as another voice echoed in the room, silencing everyone.

_“My dear lambs, I have an announcement to make.”_

That was Yasuhiro. He wasn’t sitting anymore and everybody was now listening to him, even the younger students. He had more authority than I thought if even kids didn’t dare speak.

_“Due to some circumstances, some rules had to be added.”_

Some of the older students, including the ones at my table, grumbled hearing that. I had the feeling that those new rules had something to do with me.

_“There will now be a curfew for the older students.”_

_“What the hell?”_

I raised my eyebrows when I heard Aoi saying that. Why was a curfew such a problem? I sniffed a little and smirked at this scent I knew too well. An incubus, of course a curfew would be a problem to him. Incubi were known to be horny bastards, if there was a curfew, he wouldn’t be able to have sex with whomever he wanted. Though, I had to say, there was a strange aura emanating from him. He smelled like an incubus, but he gave off something more, something I couldn’t exactly understand.

_“Why are you smirking like that?”_ Maya whispered to me.

_“A curfew isn’t convenient for an incubus.”_ I answered, smirking even more when I noticed that the one concerned heard me.

_“Well, isn’t it the same for you?”_ he retorted, smiling mysteriously.

I frowned, at this point we weren’t even paying attention to what Yasuhiro was saying. Everybody at our table was too concentrated on the exchange I was having with the demon to even listen to the headmaster.

_“Come on, you’re a sex addict, aren’t you?”_

I rolled my eyes while I heard people choking. I looked at my left and noticed Kai and Uruha coughing. We were teenagers, how could such a subject be embarrassing to them? Because that clearly was the reason of their reaction, they were embarrassed. They were crimson red. And I thought vampires were into debauchery…

_“What makes you think I am?”_ I asked.

_“You reek of sex, that’s why.”_ groaned the blonde demon.

I growled at him, showing my fangs, when I heard that.

“ _Reita answered for me, we can smell that you had sex, like a lot.”_ said Aoi.

_“This doesn’t mean I’m a sex addict, I just used an opportunity before being locked here.”_ I sighed.

_“Well, you can have sex in here too.”_

His smile clearly made me understand what he had in mind while suggesting such a thing.

_“No, you just want to feed on me, and I’m not an open bar.”_ I groaned.  _“And I don’t sleep with people I have to live with.”_

_“Why? There’s nothing wrong in that.”_ pointed out the blonde with blue eyes.

_“Hiroto, I think this guy doesn’t want to get involved in any kind of relationship, that’s why.”_ sighed Shou.

_“Well, at least one of you is clever.”_ I snorted.

_“Hey!”_

I laughed. Maybe I’d be able to have some fun here. These guys, even though they were nosy, could be entertaining. I had to admit that Yasuhiro was right earlier, I had to find something to evacuate stress out of my body and mind. Stress was something that made me snap even more easily, and these guys seemed to be some kind of stress-relievers. Maybe this place would actually help me…


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a native speaker.
> 
> Originally posted on LJ on 2nd December 2015.

Two weeks had passed since I got here. Nothing really had changed, I actually avoided as much as I could the other students, even though I had to go to class with them, and of course Maya always wanted me to be with him, thus, with them too.

My training had started and the one training me was no other than Aoi, the incubus. When I learnt that, Yasuhiro told me he was the most suited person for this, but I still wasn’t convinced why. Sure, he made a good job with me, I clearly controlled myself a little more, or at least, didn’t bother about Uruha’s attitude anymore, but I didn’t get why it wasn’t a teacher training me. Now that I thought about it, my attitude towards the vampire maybe wasn’t really me self-controlling properly, but just accepting his personality.

_“Tomorrow is the visit day.”_

My head shot up when I heard that. I was sitting on my bed with Maya next to me, while Uruha and Aoi were on the vampire’s one. I didn’t really pay attention to what they were talking about until now, I was busy reading a book I had found downstairs.

 _“Visit day?”_ I asked, confused.

 _“Yeah, families come around to see their children.”_ answered Aoi.

I hummed in response, closed my book and laid it on my nightstand. My family wouldn’t come tomorrow, they couldn’t risk it. I glanced at Maya for a second and wondered if his parents would come, but that wasn’t possible either. He was from the empire that fought against this one, actually he was the crown prince, but nobody knew that, and he certainly wouldn’t tell anyone about it. My family and Yasuhiro knowing his origins was already too much. This was enough to convince me that he won’t be visited by anyone either.

_“Will your parents come, Ruki?”_

I shook my head in response to the incubus’ question.

_“It’s too dangerous.”_

_“What about your siblings and cousins then?”_ asked Maya.

_“I don’t think they were told where I am.”_

If it was the case, I was quite convinced that one of them would already be here by now. They always hated the elders’ decisions when it came to me so… I could have called them, but my parents asked me not to.

 _“What about you guys?”_ I asked.

 _“My parents can’t come here for the same reason.”_ my best friend answered.

 _“I don’t have anyone to visit me.”_ mumbled the vampire so quietly that I thought I didn’t hear right.

Well, his answer was something I expected. I didn’t tell Uruha that I was aware of his origins because I didn’t see the purpose in doing such a thing. Moreover he would become suspicious, after all, how could I have known he was a Takashima? He would directly assume that I was related to his family’s slaughter. And, even if it was hard to admit, I didn’t really want to remind him any of this. He probably remembered what had happened back then, even though he couldn’t tell who was responsible for such a massacre. I didn’t have to hurt him even more. Moreover, I was trying to figure out how he could actually still be alive when it was announced that the whole family had been murdered, didn’t they check before leaving the place?

 _“I don’t want my family to come by, they always are so sexually frustrated around teenagers, they would end up raping someone.”_ growled Aoi.

I frowned hearing this statement. Seriously? Rape? I was slightly surprised to hear the incubus speak so easily about his relatives. I had heard things about him not wanting to tell anything to anyone about them, people didn’t know why and didn’t dare ask. Aoi turned into a completely different person when he was questioned about his past and family. You didn’t want to be around him when it was the case, at least that was what the others said.

I suddenly felt as if I were stabbed in the heart. I growled due to the pain and clenched my fists, what was going on? I got up, wincing at the same time, and went to the bathroom, ignoring the worried stare of Maya and the puzzled ones of the two others. I locked the door behind me and slid down it, it was getting worse. I had the feeling my whole body was pierced by thousands of needles, my lungs were burning as if someone had set them on fire. My vision was getting hazy, I couldn’t look at one specific spot anymore.

_“Takanori.”_

What? What was this just now? I didn’t know this voice, where did it come from?

_“It’s time for you to wake up, to get out of your slumber.”_

I was starting to feel dizzy. I had to do something, I couldn’t just lose consciousness like this. I managed to crawl to the sink and got on my feet, weaving a little at the same time. My world started spinning stronger, but I managed to stand by gripping the sink, my knuckles turning white at the strength I used. I turned on the tap and splashed my face with cold water. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and froze. My eyes were changing colour all the time, there wasn’t one colour staying more than a few seconds. Was the spell wearing off? This was definitely bad, how could this happen so fast?

_“Ruki, you ok?”_

I bit my lower lip when I heard Maya’s voice, he sounded worried.

 _“Fine.”_ I replied, my voice weaker than I thought it would be.

_“You don’t sound fine at all, open the door.”_

Everything started spinning again, cold water wouldn’t help me in this case.

_“Nothing to worry abo…”_

I couldn't finish my sentence as I fainted.

✡✡✡

Maya’s eyes widened as he heard a loud thud coming from the bathroom.

_“Ruki!”_

He started hitting the door, slamming his foot against the handle, and finally managed to break it. At this moment he didn’t care about the two other males in the room who were gaping at him, he just wanted to make sure his best friend would be fine. He rushed to him when he saw him lying on the ground, unconscious.

_“Shit, Ruki, what the hell happened to you?”_

He picked him up and frowned, until now he hadn’t noticed how his best friend’s body was skinny and light. He looked fragile, but he never thought he actually was. How could he handle his missions with such a body? This wasn’t normal, and Ruki’s species was one with strong bodies, not weak like this.

Something caught the tall blonde eyes, making him froze on his spot. Tribal tattoos were appearing on the smaller male’s neck. When they were kids, Ruki only had tattoos on his back. He was born with them according to his parents, they said it was nothing to worry about, it sometimes happened. But now that the fae saw the same kind of tattoos on his neck, he was convinced that it had something to do with his species, with the secret his clan had.

He walked to the bed, laid Ruki on it and pulled the duvet to cover his body as much as possible.

 _“What happened?”_ asked Uruha, looking at Ruki in confusion.

 _“I don’t know, it seems like he fainted.”_ answered the fae, stroking his best friend’s cheek.

 _“Should we call the nurse?”_ proposed Aoi.

_“Yasuhiro maybe, the nurse won’t be of much use.”_

_“Alright.”_

Aoi walked out of the room, glancing one last time at Ruki's unconscious body. He knew from the beginning that something was different about the blonde, and now the incubus had the feeling things were about to change soon.

✡✡✡

I woke up feeling a hand stroking my head. I opened my eyes and met a gaze I never thought I’d see now.

_“Sister?”_

She faintly smiled at me before leaning down to kiss my forehead. She really had decided to show her real appearance. Her slim face was surrounded by her long blonde locks, her red eyes shining in the dark. Her plump lips were painted in crimson red, a bright colour matching her eyes. I used to paint my lips in a more blood-red colour, a deeper colour. As she smiled, the point of her fangs appeared. I smiled back, even though I felt quite weak. My head hurt, I must have hit it hard when I fainted.

 _“What are you doing here?”_ I finally asked.

_“Yasuhiro called mother, who called me.”_

_“I see…”_

_“She was panicking, she could barely speak. I thought something bad had happened to you, that you were badly hurt, so I came here as fast as I could.”_ she continued.

_“You didn’t need to, I just need some rest.”_

_“Takanori.”_

Her tone made me shut my mouth directly. She seemed worried now. My sister rarely used my first name, it always was ‘Taka-chan’.

_“Your tattoos appeared, and now there are even more than before.”_

I didn’t say anything, what could I possibly say? I didn’t know what was happening to me. Something was wrong, that was for sure, but what?

_“I had to cast a new spell.”_

_“What?”_ I frowned.

_“Nobody besides Maya and Yasuhiro saw them so it should be fine.”_

_“No, Ayaka, it won’t be fine. There’s something going on, and I don’t know what it is.”_ I said, slowly sitting up.

_“I wish I could help you with this, but I don’t know anything either, the elders wouldn’t tell me.”_

I groaned at that statement, even with this they would keep on hiding something from us, what was it? This seriously started to piss me off, why did they make such a big deal of what I was? Why couldn’t I just know it?

 _“What happened?”_ she asked.

_“I’m not sure myself…”_

I turned my head to look through the window, it was already nighttime. Where could possibly be Uruha? Did Ayaka kick him out of the room? She was capable of such a thing. It maybe was his room too, but she wouldn’t care about it.

 _“I felt as if I were stabbed, as if I were pierced with thousands of needles.”_ I started.

She frowned hearing this but didn’t say anything.

_“I couldn’t catch a breath, my heart ached. I felt dizzy and before I could do anything, I fainted.”_

_“There wasn’t anything else?”_

I glanced at her but averted eye contact, could I tell her that I heard an unknown male voice? I didn’t even understand what he was telling me so was it needed? She wouldn’t understand either.

_“Taka-chan, there’s something else, isn’t it?”_

I nodded but couldn’t make myself say it. What that man said was troubling me, to get out of my slumber? What slumber was he talking about? I was awake so what did he mean? I sighed and looked at my sister, she was waiting for me to say something.

_“You should leave, Ayaka. Mother would want you home right now, she needs someone to reassure her, father is too busy for that right now.”_

_“I know, but I want to make sure that you’ll be fine.”_ she replied, patting my head.

_“I’ll be fine, I just need to rest a little.”_

She smiled, but I could see that she was hiding something from me. Now that I thought about it, she said she casted the spell, but she wasn’t using the same kind of magic as our mother did.

In our family, each child was associated to a deadly sin or a virtue at its birth, and Ayaka, the second born child of my generation, was associated to _Luxuria_. Mother’s generation was actually one that was somehow blessed, all of her siblings were linked to a virtue. Mother had _Humanitas_ , kindness. For this reason she was the best at spells, she always was the one to heal us when we were badly injured. Her spells never had side effects. However, Ayaka’s magic was one you didn’t want to experience because you always ended up feeling some of her sin. Lust was a sin of excess, this would definitely bring me to do something I didn’t plan to do at first.

 _“How much power did you use?”_ I asked, expecting the worst.

_“More than I thought I would…”_

_“Just great, the elders locked all the sins I had, with this I’m quite sure_ Luxuria _was unlocked.”_ I sighed.

_“I’m sorry Taka-chan, I should maybe have called our cousin.”_

_“Too late. Either way one of them would have been unlocked at some point so…”_

_“Well, you were quite lucky until now, you only had wrath to fight off, and only since you were 12.”_

I hummed in response. I was the eighth child. I was told that something went wrong at my birth and I was linked to all the sins, but not even one virtue to compensate it all. All the elders were summoned and they had spent days trying to lock all of those sins inside me, but it appeared that _Ira_ was too strong and they could only soften it for awhile before it would break out of its cage, which happened when I was 12. Now I was sure _Luxuria_ would follow, I could already feel it before getting to this school. Of course, lust wasn’t all about sex, but it mostly was, and I could say that I had enjoyed my last mission more than I should have, I had opened the gate for it with this sinful pleasure.

_“Leave now, you can’t do anything about it anymore.”_

_“Takanori.”_

_“What is it again?”_ I sighed.

_“Don’t lose it.”_

_“What?”_ I frowned.

 _“Avoid sex as much as you can.”_ clarified Ayaka.

_“What the hell are you saying now?”_

_“The spell might wear off if you let yourself get lost in pleasure.”_

_“Seriously?”_

_“Please, control yourself. I’m not sure someone will be able to hide your true appearance next time, not even mother.”_ she said, getting up and kissing me on the right cheek.

I watched her walk out of the room, I didn’t understand. If I were to crave for sex, it would be all her fault because she was the one to use a spell full of lust on me. Telling me not to have sex wasn’t really useful, nor helpful. With the influence of her sin I wouldn’t be able to control myself.

I leaned my back against the wall behind my bed and sighed, running my fingers through my messy hair. Once again I glanced through the window and noticed Uruha and Reita sitting on a bench, not far from a pond. So it wasn’t curfew yet? What time was it actually? I opened the drawer of my nightstand and took my phone out of it. 11pm. I was wrong, it was curfew, but then, how could they be there with no teacher scolding them? I moved out of my bed and changed clothes, I didn’t know for how long I had been in those, but they were the same as when I fainted so… I put on some make-up, brushed my hair and looked at myself in the mirror; I looked like a ghost. I looked ill, the dark circles under my eyes couldn’t even be hidden by make-up. Being unconscious didn’t mean resting, that’s for sure.

I went to the kitchen downstairs to get something to eat, the cafeteria was closed now so I’d have to deal with something small, not a real meal. I opened the door of the fridge and gaped at what was in it, there mostly were blood bottles. What the hell? I didn’t even know there were those here.

I sighed, closing the door. Even though I was craving for it, I couldn’t drink it. The only vampire here was Uruha, so he would directly notice that a bottle was missing. Moreover, I wasn’t supposed to drink blood, my kind didn’t need it, so I should stay away from it, even though I wanted to drink some. There definitely was something weird with me. I looked through the cupboards and finally found some biscuits. Well, this was more a snack than a meal, but it was better than nothing.

I walked outside, taking my cigarette pack out of my pocket. It was slowly getting colder, it was almost November, winter wasn’t really far anymore. I lit a stick and sat down on the porch. It was quiet, everybody was sleeping, except Uruha and Reita who were in the garden on the other side of the house.

I didn’t know how long I had been here, but there were five butts in the ashtray I had taken outside with me so I must have been here for at least half an hour.

_“Mind giving me one?”_

My head shot up suddenly when I heard a voice. I frowned when I saw Reita, what did he want from me? We weren’t friends, he was a fucking asshole who thought he knew everything better than me. He kept on making comments on my supposed sex addiction, and he sometimes came at my training with Aoi just to piss me off and have a fight with me. I didn’t get that, he always wanted to fight with me, he always wanted to compare our strength. It certainly frustrated him to know that someone smaller than him actually could kick his ass, because it always was the case. Even though I had to admit he was strong, he didn’t have the training I had to fight. I was trained to be an assassin after all.

I sighed as he sat next to me. He snatched my pack from my hands and took one cigarette, not even waiting for my answer.

_“You finally woke up.”_

I just nodded, I didn’t want to talk to him otherwise I would snap at him, as always. There was something in him that made me feel uncomfortable around him. I didn’t know if it was his gaze, or his aura…

 _“How long was I unconscious actually?”_ I finally managed to ask.

_“Four days.”_

_“You’re kidding right?”_ I said with disbelief.

 _“Nope, I don’t know what happened to you but it had to be something important. Maya keeps on telling us it’s none of our business, and your sister is quite of a fury.”_ the demon replied, blowing some smoke.

 _“Well, it’s none of your business, you’re just an acquaintance to me.”_ I said, ignoring what he had said about my sister as I could only agree with him.

He turned his head to look at me. I froze as I locked eyes with him, again, his silver eyes paralyzed me. He didn’t have that look of the first few days anymore, but there was still something disturbing in his eyes.

 _“The others might have stopped asking you things, but you still are suspicious to me.”_ he told me, his tail waving slowly behind him.

 _“Everyone is suspicious here.”_ I retorted.

 _“Is that so?”_ he asked, raising an eyebrow.

_“Maya earned my trust over years, you guys shouldn’t expect me to tell you everything about me.”_

He softly smiled at my statement. I couldn’t keep myself from being surprised and stared at him, I never saw him smiling this way, he actually never smiled, he just smirked. It really was surprising to see him smile so gently. However, his emotionless face quickly came back.

 _“Ruki, the others don’t feel it, but I do for some reasons I won’t explain.”_ he said, getting up.

 _“What are you talking about?”_ I frowned.

_“You’re surrounded by death.”_

_“W-what?”_ I stuttered.

The hell? Did I just stutter in front of Reita? He seemed to not care about that as he continued to speak.

 _“Death surrounds you. I don’t mean that you’ve killed people and their auras follow you, I mean that Death with a capital ‘D’ is all around you. Your aura is pitch-black, there isn’t even one spark of light in there.”_ he explained before walking back into the house.

I watched him going inside, not being able to comprehend what had just happened. This was the first time I had a semblance of a normal conversation with the blonde demon, and it turned out like this. I lowered my head and gaped at my hands, they were shaking, and my tattoos weren't hidden there. No way... Did Ayaka fail to cast the spell correctly? Did Reita see those? The tremors got more intense as I tried to get on my feet, and I fell on my knees, staring into space. I never had such a reaction before, what the hell was happening to me?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a native speaker.
> 
> Originally posted on LJ on 21st December 2015.
> 
> Listen to Aural Vampire for this chapter, I wrote it while listening to Carpe Noctem, MAILER-DEMON and Bad Taste Youth.

_“It’s been more than a week…”_

The six boys looked at the blonde who had just spoken. They were in their classroom, gathered around the same blonde’s desk.

 _“What are you talking about?”_ asked Reita.

 _“Ruki, I haven’t seen him for over a week.”_ explained Maya, staring blankly at his cell phone.

They all glanced at each other before looking back at the fae. They made it look like they hadn’t noticed the small blonde’s disappearance, but they actually were wondering where he could have possibly vanished. If even Maya had no idea of where he could be, it definitely made them suspicious. Ruki was secretive, he didn’t say much, so they didn’t know whether to trust him or not, yet.

 _“Last time I saw him, he was still unconscious. Did he even wake up?”_ continued the blonde.

Reita slightly bit his lower lip. Maybe he should directly have told Maya that Ruki had woken up, and that they had talked before the younger’s disappearance.

 _“I talked with him.”_ sighed the demon.

They all gaped at him, they clearly didn’t expect such a thing to come out of the demon’s mouth. He had a quite complicated relationship with Ruki, they all knew that, they could see it, so how could they end up talking?

 _“Was it talking or arguing?”_ frowned Aoi.

The incubus, having witnessed the multiple quarrels of his friends, had some difficulties to believe that Reita had been all nice to their junior.

In response to the incubus question, the demon just glared at him, knowing perfectly what the raven-haired was thinking.

 _“We didn’t argue at all, for once we had a normal conversation.”_ growled the blonde.

 _“What did he say to you? Did he say he would go somewhere?”_ asked Maya, drumming his fingers on the desk.

_“He didn’t say anything about that, we didn’t talk much.”_

_“Reita, you must have said something to him, this is weird.”_ sighed Uruha, way too aware of how the demon could be sometimes.

_“He didn’t seem in his right mind to be honest, he tried to hide it, but he was stressed about something.”_

Maya’s head shot up when he heard that. Stressed? Ruki’s sister had to cast a new spell on him, maybe something had gone wrong with it. Ayaka had told the crown prince right away that she had had some difficulties to do it correctly, to hide everything. Somehow, Ruki’s body resisted more to the spells than before, therefore she had to use more magic than needed, and it worried her.

_“Did you see anything on his body?”_

The blonde put his hand to his mouth when he spoke those words. He didn’t want to ask this, but as he thought about it, it just came out. He looked at his friends and noticed them frowning, well, he clearly had messed up here, Ruki would kill him once he would be back.

 _“He was dressed, Maya.”_ frowned the blonde demon.

 _“Yeah right, forget about that, I don’t know why I asked such a weird thing.”_ smiled the fae, waving his right hand as to wave off the question.

The demon rolled his eyes and caught that hand, pulling Maya out of the classroom, far from the others. He knew he couldn’t say what he had seen with them around, after all it didn’t really concern them, nor did it concern him. But Maya was worried, he could see that pretty well, and maybe this tiny piece of information would help him put his mind at ease.

 _“What are you doing?”_ asked Maya, running to keep up with the demon’s pace.

They got out on the roof and Reita suddenly stopped. He turned around to face the tall blonde and smiled, slightly uneasy.

 _“I did see something.”_ Maya’s golden eyes widened, so the spell really hadn’t worked.

 _“I think he noticed it once I was gone, but… He had tattoos on his hands.”_ continued Reita, leaning against the wall behind him.

The roof was a quite deserted place. Other students rarely came here, they knew this place was kind of the property of the demon and his friends. That was the only thing the demon had been thinking of while running, to get to an empty zone.

 _“You saw his tattoos…”_ trailed off Maya.

 _“Yeah, and I’ve already seen something similar before.”_ replied Reita, looking up to the grey sky.

_“What? How? Where?”_

The fae’s curiosity had been piqued, if he could learn a few things about those tattoos, maybe it would help him to find out what was happening to his best friend.

_“It’s kind of personal, and to be honest, I don’t know what they mean.”_

Maya sighed in despair as he heard his friend’s words. He let himself slide down the wall and hugged his knees, hiding his face at the same time. He didn’t know what to do or think right now. Was Ruki gone for a mission? The small blonde had told Maya that he was done with all of this as long as he was here, but why would he disappear then? He had woken up, but somehow Ayaka had failed to cast a cloaking spell successfully, which resulted in Reita seeing Ruki’s tattoos on his hands. Something must have happened, he wouldn’t just disappear like this.

_“Maya.”_

The tall blonde lifted his head when he heard his name. He looked up to Reita, but the demon was still absorbed by the sky.

 _“What?”_ frowned the fae.

_“I know you said we should stay out of it… but what is Ruki?”_

The prince sighed heavily, why couldn’t they just drop out this subject? He couldn’t betray his best friend’s trust, he was too important to the blonde to be sold out.

 _“I can’t answer your question, you know that perfectly.”_ groaned Maya.

_“Maya, the only time I saw those tattoos was when I met Death and some weird kid.”_

The fae held back a shiver as he heard that. Death? What exactly had Reita been through? Who could meet a grim reaper and eventually stay alive after that? Nobody escaped Death, he knew that perfectly. Even if he was alive now, he still had met that being, he still had been dragged to the afterworld. The grim reaper always went after you, you could do anything you wanted, your soul would always be caught.

 _“Wait, did you say you saw a child?”_ frowned Maya.

What would a child possibly do with a grim reaper? Those creatures were solitary, they didn’t like company, they weren’t made for social interactions. Why would a kid be with Death? Never had Maya heard of a grim reaper having a child, but he wasn’t all-knowing, so maybe there were things that were hidden to the livings. Nobody knew if grim reapers could be considered as alive. They had a beating heart after all, but they were closer to the dead than to the livings.

 _“I did. He was around my age back then, and he had similar tattoos to those Ruki has.”_ answered Reita, his gaze set on Maya.

 _“When was that?”_ asked the fae.

 _“Seven years ago.”_ blurted out the demon.

 _“How come you’re still alive? Grim reapers don’t let their prey flee.”_ Maya narrowed his eyes.

_“I wasn’t the one targeted…”_

Maya had a hard time figuring things out, he didn’t understand Reita at all, and that maybe was because he actually knew nothing about the demon. They could say whatever they wanted, but Reita was like Ruki. Nobody even knew what type of demon Reita was, maybe not even Uruha, even though he was his best friend.

 _“You witnessed someone losing its soul to Death…”_ whispered Maya, shivering at sheer thought of losing his soul.

 _“No, I witnessed someone’s soul being devoured.”_ said Reita in an indifferent tone.

 _“Grim reapers rarely eat souls, Reita.”_ frowned the fae.

 _“The grim reaper wasn’t the one to eat it.”_ replied the demon.

_“The kid was?”_

Maya’s eyes widened as he saw the demon nodding his head slowly. The prince shook his head to get everything sorted. That boy couldn’t be Ruki, after all, Maya knew the other’s parents, and they weren’t grim reapers.

 _“That boy isn’t Ruki, if that’s what you’re thinking about.”_ started Maya.

_“How can you be so sure of it?”_

_“I know his parents, his whole family, and they aren’t grim reapers. I still can’t tell you what Ruki is, but I would advise you to stay away from him.”_ he continued.

The demon didn’t answer him, and he didn’t need an answer, he just wanted to warn Reita. He had played with Ruki’s patience long enough, if he continued this way, he might get himself in danger when the small blonde would be back.

The fae stood up, cleaning the back of his trousers as he had sat on the ground for around twenty minutes, and finally left the roof, not even glancing at the demon. He wanted to believe that his friend wouldn’t do anything reckless, but that was asking too much from Reita.

✡✡✡

Suppertime was long passed when Reita walked out of the dorm, looking around to be sure nobody was out at the moment. He let his wings appear and sighed in relief. It definitely felt better with them out, it always hurt him to hide them. It was a painful process to get them in his back, and it also was to push them out, but it always felt better to have them out. They slightly fluttered when a breeze blew by. The demon wished he could have flied, but he had other things to take care of. No matter what Maya said, he was convinced that the fae didn’t know much about his best friend, at least not as much as he pretended.

The demon knew that one area, which was forbidden to students for some reasons. No one ever thought anything about it, they didn’t care, and until now he didn’t care either. However, he was getting suspicious. Ruki had disappeared, and Reita was certain that it had something to do with the tattoos. He didn’t have them before, but this could be due to some spell. After all, why would his sister come just because he had lost consciousness? It was too much for such a thing. Maya was hiding something, as well as Yasuhiro. Their headmaster knew more than he let his students think.

Reita walked inside the school building, directly heading to the basement. It was only one floor, but with what he was used to with his family, he knew how false walls worked, his house was full of them after all. He let his fingers graze over the walls, trying to find a place where there could be a hidden door.

After twenty minutes, he stopped and sighed in defeat. He had been around the room at least thrice and didn’t find anything. Was he imagining things? He looked around, his silver eyes gleaming in the dark. He was about to go back to his room when his eyes fell upon a particular spot. A smirk slowly made its way to his lips, he should have thought about that earlier. He pushed a heavy piece of furniture away and stifled a laugh. What an idiot he was. He should have known that trapdoors were a possibility, they were even more likely to exist than false walls.

He bent down and opened it. It was pitch-black down there, but he could hear the muffled sound of what seemed to be music. There weren’t any stairs, but that wasn’t a problem for him. He sat down, his legs dangling in the opening. He glanced behind him, but he was alone, nobody had followed him. He breathed in deeply and let himself slide into the void.

He broke his fall with his wings and softly landed on his feet. The fall actually was quite long, there had to be a few meters between this floor and the upper one. He could hear the music more clearly now, it sounded like electro, but maybe he was wrong. It still sounded distant. However, thanks to that he knew where to head. He spread his wings widely and took off. Maybe what he was doing was wrong, but Ruki intrigued him.

✡✡✡

_“Please, don’t…”_

I laughed as I heard the young adult’s plead. She really thought I’d let her go? We had made a deal, she knew what she was doing, she knew what she committed to when she went for this bargain. Unfortunately, she was stupid. She thought she would be able to seduce me and not do her part of the deal, but it didn’t work that way, it never did.

_“He came back… Please, let me go with him…”_

My left eye twitched at the love I heard in her voice and saw in her eyes. I had made her blind, but there were still so much feelings in those white orbs. I crouched in front of her, still having an eye on her boyfriend who was observing us from afar. He was too shocked to do anything, he couldn’t believe what his girlfriend had agreed to do for him.

 _“Honey, you didn’t do what I asked you to do.”_ I whispered as I grabbed her chin.

 _“I… I couldn’t do such a thing…”_ she stuttered.

I wrapped my fingers in her brown locks, softly. I heard her sigh in relief. I smirked and violently pulled on her hair, making her neck almost snap. She wimpered as I released my grip.

 _“Sweetie, you don’t go for a bargain when you know you’re not capable of doing what you’re asked for.”_ I soughed.

_“I can’t do such a thing, I can’t cheat on him…”_

I clucked my tongue, feeling irritated now. How could someone love another being so much? It wasn’t such a big deal to have sex with someone as long as your partner was dead, right? He didn’t need to know. If she had done it, she would already be home by now, cuddling and more with her boyfriend. Love clearly was a weakness.

 _“Then you’ll see him doing it with someone else.”_ I said, smugly.

Her colourless eyes widened. I snapped my fingers, giving her her sight back. She didn’t know where to look at first, but when she saw her boyfriend curled up in a corner, she aimed to go to him. I grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to the opposite side of the room. I tossed her on the ground and handcuffed her to the radiator.

 _“Behave.”_ I almost barked.

No reaction came from her, she was just staring at the other man in the room. I sighed and ran my fingers through my messy blonde hair. I looked at him, he wasn’t even looking here. His eyes were set on something else, which was the corpse before him. I had to say, humans were ridiculous. They really thought they would make do, but they were so wrong. You couldn’t just escape from someone like me.

I walked to the man, slightly dancing to the music, and made him stand on his feet. He stared at me blankly, he didn’t even protest as my fingertips nudged his sides. He was a plain human, he didn’t have anything I yearned for, but playing with the mind of that girl would be fun. Would see her dear boyfriend have sex with another male make her lose it? I brushed my lips over his, a hand reaching for his nape.

I expected any kind of reaction but this one.

He grabbed me by the shoulders and slammed me against the wall, reversing our positions. I thought he would punch me, hit me, but he crashed his lips against mine, making his girlfriend and I gasp. Was he secretly gay or what? Never had a man reacted this way. I smirked against his lips and went for a deeper kiss, wrapping my legs around his waist as my hands held on his shoulders.

✡✡✡

I rolled on my side, still slightly panting. I clearly didn’t expect things to turn out this way, but anyway… Again, I ended up killing someone while having sex. I ignored the girl who was now curled into a ball, sobbing and mumbling incoherent things. This was what happened most of the time when someone made a deal with me, because they almost never obliged themselves to do their part of the deal, the person they wanted back would end up dead again. Moreover, after that, the other had to pay for not respecting the contract.

I put my hand to my mouth and yawned, it must have been nighttime now. I felt like I was in prison, I hadn’t been out for more than a week now. Yasuhiro wouldn’t let me out, according to him I had to get used to my state, but there was nothing to get used to. I was used to doing this, making deals, eating souls… I used to do it when I was younger, but my memories had been sealed for some unknown reasons.

I stood up, wincing a little as I felt pain in my lower back. That bastard had been rough, my backside would definitely remember it for a few days, ugh. My clothes were completely torn, thankfully Yasuhiro had brought me some spare ones, he still used his brain sometimes. I glanced at the mirror that hung on the same wall where the girl was curled up. I stared at my reflexion, not knowing what to think. My face, chest and legs were spared by tattoos, but otherwise, the rest of my body was covered in them. I slightly pouted when I noticed blood in my hair, I’d have to wash them too. I had to take a shower to wash all the blood and semen away from my body, but it would take more time than I thought with my hair soaked in blood. I was about to get some new clothes when the door was violently opened. I gaped at the male who was standing in the doorframe. Wasn’t this place supposed to be secret? The fucking demon had found me, and he was now staring at me with wide silver eyes. I smirked and turned to the girl who was looking at me, terrified. I kicked her in the stomach, making her spit blood, then pressed my right foot on her head, crushing it on the ground.

 _“Don’t be sad, you’re joining him.”_ I laughed.

I crouched in front of her and cupped her face. I had taken her sight and sense of smell away already, next would be hearing, and then the sense of touch, this one meaning her death. I pressed my lips against hers, smelling the sweet scent of her blood. Her body soon went numb in my arms and I finally dropped her, her corpse falling on the ground with a thud.

I sighed and turned around to glance at Reita. His eyes, which were filled with surprise earlier, were now expressionless, there was nothing in there, just void. I shrugged and took my clothes before going to the bathroom. If he wanted something, he would say it, I wasn’t willing to play the detective now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess things are pretty easy to understand, haha. I didn't write smut there because I just wasn't motivated to write Ruki having sex with some oc, hm.
> 
> Either way, thanks for reading.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a native speaker.
> 
> Originally posted on LJ on 28th December 2015.

_“You’re not going to explain what just happened?”_

I shrugged as I entered the shower stall. I tilted my head back to let the hot water wash my face from any bloodstain. I noticed Reita leaning against the sink, his cold gaze not leaving me for a split second.

_“What is this place?”_

I started cleaning my hair and closed my eyes. He was going for a slightly less straightforward approach, but I still knew where he was going with this question.

 _“You could say this is a cell.”_ I answered, grabbing the shampoo bottle.

_“A cell? It’s a quite luxurious one then, what I saw there was a bedroom.”_

I faintly smiled, I couldn’t agree more with him on the luxurious point. If we didn’t take into account the few bodies lying on the ground, the room was better than the one I shared with Uruha, and clearly not to be compared to a real cell. I had a king sized bed for myself with satin bed sheets, I ended up sprawling almost the whole day in it as I couldn’t leave this place. There was a flat screen television too, a mini-bar, a huge collection of books… I could get anything I wanted to eat, it would be brought to me without any question. In a way, I couldn’t get bored with all this.

I washed the shampoo away and started scrubbing my body.

_“Who were those people?”_

My lips curled into a smirk as I heard his question. I couldn’t answer him, but maybe he actually had an idea of what I was. He had witnessed me killing that girl after all…

_“Guess.”_

He frowned, his silver eyes darkening slowly. I took a towel and started drying myself. Honestly, I really didn’t care about him staring at my body. There was nothing to hide to him anyway, he already had seen my tattoos when I was in the bedroom, and he certainly had seen them a week ago, when they appeared on my hands without any warning.

I had broken down back then. I barely recalled what happened exactly, but Yasuhiro had brought me somewhere, somewhere else than here. I only had a few glimpses of what had happened. I could remember me staggering to Yasuhiro’s study, feeling my body cooling down quickly. I didn’t know what was happening to me, I could feel my body getting numb, losing all sensation in my limbs. What Yasuhiro had done afterwards? I had no idea. I had woken up in a kind of ceremonial room, on what could have been described as a ritual table, but that was only for a few seconds before I fell back into slumber. The next time I regained consciousness, I was here. Soon after that there were a few people waiting to meet me, they knew what they wanted; they seemed to perfectly know what I was capable of when I, myself, wasn’t aware of it entirely. I just had gone with it, not questioning anything, it felt so natural after all… I made deals and ate the souls of those who didn’t oblige. Somehow it went along with what my family did, it still was the same, I still was killing people. I already devoured souls during my missions, though I mostly went for blood first. And there was something about my childhood… I couldn’t perfectly remember it, but what I was doing now, I used to do it before. However I still had no clue about what my tattoos were, nor about that man’s voice I had heard before. I could only say that violence had once again gotten the upper hand on me, as if Aoi never had trained me. What I had done to that man just a few minutes earlier proved it.

Could he actually still be considered as a human being? I went berserk on him, with no apparent reason. What were left of him were some limbs, not even recognisable as I had partly eaten them at some point, organs spread in the whole room, blood everywhere as well. Would someone call me a monster, I wouldn’t be able to deny or argue. I was a monster, after all I had just eaten a fucking human being. Wasn’t that a sin and a crime? Weren’t the only creatures doing this wendigos?

I sighed heavily and put on my clothes.

 _“It’s not really easy to guess seeing the state of most of the bodies.”_ groaned Reita, massaging his temples.

 _“You know, I owe you nothing, not even an explanation.”_ I replied, drying my hair with another towel. _“This place is supposed to be hidden and secret, you weren’t supposed to find it.”_

_“I know, but if you don’t take into account my curiosity, I also looked for you because of Maya.”_

_“Maybe I should have called him.”_ I groaned, slightly bothered.

The demon rolled his eyes, as if he was thinking that it was obvious I should have done that. In a way, I hadn’t been fully awake for a week, it just had been fives days, so I didn’t have the feeling I had disappeared for so long. Either way, it really bothered me that Maya worried that much, this made people curious, which was a real pain in the ass for me. I didn’t need some weird guy to look for me and finally find me when I was doing my job. I didn’t want anyone to know me, to be close to me. Yet, Reita was learning things about me, things I’d have preferred to stay unknown. Even Maya didn’t know everything about me, and he was kind of my best friend. Having a complete stranger see me devouring someone’s soul wasn’t something I looked forward, but in the end it happened, and I couldn’t escape from it.

I walked out of the bathroom and sat on my bed, which surprisingly seemed to have been spared by the blood and guts. I looked around, not minding Reita who sat next to me, and wrinkled my nose because of the putrid stench lingering in the room. I had to get this place cleaned; too many bodies were getting piled up here. I hadn’t paid attention until now, but I wondered how I could have stayed for so long in this room with those corpses around.

 _“You know what? We better get out of this room otherwise I'll throw up.”_ I grumbled, trying not to gag.

I got up and headed out, not even caring if Reita followed me or not. If he wanted to stay in there I wouldn’t keep him from doing so, but right now I just had to get some fresh air. The only smell I couldn’t stand was the one of putrefaction, it always gave me heaving.

I took my phone out of my pocket and dialled Yasuhiro’s number. I didn’t care what time it was, I needed him to do something otherwise I wouldn’t sleep, and I also had to tell him to hide his supposedly secret doors and hatches better. I waited as I heard that typical beeping sound and noticed Reita getting out of the room, some blood on his hands. Did he touch one of the dead bodies? What the hell was he thinking?

 _“Ruki, why are you calling me at such an hour?”_ growled Yasuhiro as he answered the call.

_“Well, hello to you too, Yasuhiro.”_

I got some swearing in response. In a week, the headmaster had completely changed his behaviour towards me. He didn’t play the polite and nice guy with me anymore, he just said things how he wanted and didn’t mind what I thought.

_“I need you to get my room cleaned.”_

_“Why?”_

I could perfectly picture his face expression morphing into a frown.

 _“Because I’m a neat freak? What do you think, huh? There are some fucking dead bodies in here, some already started rotting, it stinks like hell.”_ I replied, exasperated.

 _“Can’t you do this yourself?”_ he groaned.

I heard some rustling coming from his side and guessed it meant he was getting out of bed.

 _“Well… You know, it’s not just dead bodies. It’s kinda messy.”_ I softly giggled.

Reita gave me a weird look when he heard me giggling. Maybe I shouldn’t show that much that I actually enjoyed killing people, it would make me look like some kind of psychopath or what.

 _“Ok, I’m just going to ask someone to cast a spell and they’ll be gone in a few minutes, the room perfectly cleaned.”_ replied Yasuhiro.

_“Thanks.”_

_“Is that all?”_

_“Actually, no.”_

I heard him swear as I replied.

_“This is for you too, Yasuhiro.”_

_“Really?”_

_“Yeah.”_ I sighed. _“You should hide your doors more carefully, someone got in here.”_

The sound of something breaking made me frown. Did he drop something? Yasuhiro was someone who kept his cool in any situation, but maybe this news surprised him. I had to say, I was surprised too when Reita came into the room. I hadn’t sensed him at all.

 _“What have you done?”_ he asked.

_“Nothing, he’s unharmed.”_

_“I don’t believe you.”_

I sighed heavily and glanced at Reita, he was leaning against the wall and was openly staring at me, not even trying to hide it.

 _“I’ll just let him speak to you, like that you’ll have the proof I stayed calm around him.”_ I finally said, handing the phone to the blonde demon.

He took it and walked away, he surely would have some explanations to give to Yasuhiro about how he managed to get here, and why he looked for me. The headmaster was already aware of our relationship, which came down to fights and insults most of the time.

As Reita was walking in circles, my gaze fell on his back. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but he actually had wings, which had torn the back of his shirt. Pitch-back huge wings, which looked like a bat’s ones, though the membrane looked like leather. The bone was out at the top end of the wings, but it was black and shaped like a sort of spike, slightly bended. I still wondered what kind of demon could Reita possibly be. Nothing in his appearance gave a hint about where he came from, or maybe something did, but I didn’t know what. His eyes might actually be a clue, but I didn’t know what kind of demon had such an eye colour.

 _“Who is Yasuhiro to you?”_ asked Reita once he was done with the headmaster.

I took my phone back and shrugged slightly.

 _“A family friend.”_ I answered.

 _“It’s not nothing to have a phoenix as a friend.”_ frowned the demon.

 _“It’s more a pain in the ass than anything else.”_ I laughed.

Yasuhiro really could get annoying sometimes. Because he was old he knew things I had no idea of, and he kept on reminding me of that. However, I had to concede that it could be useful at times. The emperor really was missing something by not having the only phoenix left in this empire on his side. He would have had Yasuhiro as an advisor, the war would already have been won. But Yasuhiro was against that man, and so was my family, though they still kept on working for him. We were bound to him in a way nobody could understand. The clan had somehow lied to him only once, and that was about me, about my whole being. I considered myself as a lie, so all the lies they had told him were, according to me, part of a bigger one. If the emperor found out about it, my whole family would be executed, just like Uruha’s one.

I walked back into my bedroom and noticed things slowly disappearing and getting cleaned. That’s when I felt my stomach slightly rumble. I sighed and quickly grabbed the body of the girl I had killed earlier. I dug my hand into her chest, getting past her ribcage. From the corner of the eye I could see Reita staring at me, shocked. I finally managed to get a grip on her heart and ripped it out of her body. I let the corpse fall at my feet and just turned my back to it. I had been quite busy today, and for some unknown reasons my appetite kept on growing. I was lucky she still was a bit warm, not already completely cold like all the others.

 _“You should look away.”_ I said, but the demon ignored my warning.

I dug my fangs in the heart and directly felt blood spurt in my mouth. A soft moan escaped from me as I felt the crimson liquid flowing down my throat, it was sweet, really sweet. Her boyfriend was more bitter, he wasn’t that good actually, but in the heat of the moment, I just had eaten him up without thinking twice about my deed.

_“What the fuck are you?”_

I chewed on the bit of flesh I had in my mouth and looked up to Reita, who was wearing his expressionless mask again.

 _“Wanna taste?”_ I asked, handing out what was left of the heart, ignoring his question.

 _“Seriously?”_ he frowned, not really looking disgusted though.

 _“C’mon, you’re a demon, don’t tell me you never tasted human flesh before.”_ I grinned. _“And she’s sweet, you’ll like it.”_

_“You do know that this is cannibalism, right?”_

Even though he said that, he still reached out his hand and I let the heart fall in it, still grinning at him. I could feel something warm in my chest, and that had nothing to do with what I just ate. I didn’t comprehend it so I just decided to ignore it, it couldn’t be anything important.

I watched the demon digging his fangs in the heart, at first hesitantly, but then greedily. He softly hummed as he tasted the flesh and the blood. It didn’t take long before he finished everything.

 _“See, I told you you’d like it.”_ I said, a cocky smile slowly spreading on my red lips.

 _“It’s still forbidden.”_ he replied, sucking his fingers.

_“Isn’t the forbidden the most exhilarating thing though? The pleasure you get from doing something you could get punished for is unutterable, at least that’s how things are for me.”_

He just stared at me, not giving me any verbal response, but I could see a flicker in his eyes that proved me he agreed with me. For once, I’d maybe have someone to share this sinful pleasure with. It sounded stupid, I wasn’t someone who needed company. This place was changing me, and I didn’t like it one bit. I had begun to feel things I knew nothing about, things I couldn’t describe or understand. Feelings were a weakness, a huge one.

I was brought back to Earth by something soft pressed on my lips. My eyes widened as I noticed Reita actually kissing me. I pushed him away and stepped back a little.

 _“What the fuck are you thinking?”_ I yelled, my eyes turning black due to anger.

He raised his hands in the air, as in sign of defeat, and licked his lips, a smirk slowly making its way to his lips.

 _“I just wanted to taste more.”_ he replied.

 _“Go fuck someone else.”_ I groaned.

_“Who said I wanted to taste you?”_

I frowned as I heard his answer. The man I hated was back. Reita always was like this before, but somehow his behaviour had changed a bit, though now it was back to what was normal to me.

 _“That girl really was good, and you had blood on your lips so I went for it.”_ he continued, rolling his eyes.

I huffed and climbed on my bed, I leaned against the headboard and stared at the demon, who hadn’t moved from his spot.

_“What are you waiting for? Leave.”_

He wasn’t going to stay here, right? The blonde didn’t have his place here, he should have been out there, with all the others, somehow free. He could leave, he wasn’t in the same situation as I was. Yasuhiro had made sure I wouldn’t be able to get out of the basement. He had casted a spell on me, linking me to this place, forbidding me to get out of here. I could go wherever I wanted as long as it was on this floor, if I tried to get out via the trapdoor, which already was hard to access, I would just be dragged back to this room by some invisible forces.

 _“I didn’t really get my answers, you know.”_ he replied, his silver eyes set on me.

 _“I don’t care, I told you I didn’t owe you any explanation.”_ I frowned. _“I’ll call Maya when it’s the right time, for now, leave and tell him I’m fine.”_

His smirk slowly disappeared and his eyes darkened, slowly getting black.

 _“You really don’t know how it feels to be worried about someone?”_ he asked, his voice deeper than before.

 _“Honestly? No, I don’t. That’s a feeling I don’t know, and I’ll never feel it because it’s against my nature.”_ I replied coldly.

_“And then I wonder why I can’t trust you…”_

I cocked an eyebrow as I heard his whisper. He wouldn’t possibly make me believe that he wanted to trust me, because it clearly was impossible. This man was just like me, cold and scheming. He thought about himself first, not about others. Just like he said before, he was here because of his own curiosity, not really because he wanted to reassure Maya.

I stifled a laugh as I thought about it. Reita was a fucking demon, demons were selfish, all of them, no matter what kind they were. We were three here: Aoi, Reita and I. We were from different species, and yet, we all were selfish and, to some extent, self-absorbed. We didn’t care about others, but we had to make it look like we actually did. That was the only reason why people liked Aoi, he had managed to make people believe that he was a nice guy who was doomed to be an incubus, whilst he actually enjoyed being one. For Reita it was slightly different, people who didn’t know him were scared of him because, as a matter of fact, he was himself with them. Of course, the others knew that about him too, but he wasn’t such an asshole with them, which was the reason why they were kind of friends. And when it came to me… I was just the heartless boy who people knew nothing about.

 _“I never said you could trust me, even Maya can’t trust me.”_ I sighed.

 _“How do you live with yourself? Don’t you feel bad about the way you behave?”_ he asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

 _“Why should I feel bad about myself? I’ve grown up to be this way, I’m exactly where my family wants me to be, and I’m exactly how they want me to be.”_ I replied, grabbing a bottle of black nail-varnish from my nightstand.

_“Really? You don’t feel lonely?”_

I lightly bit my lower lip as he pronounced the last word. I couldn’t feel lonely. After all, I was a danger to other people’s lives, and so I was bound to be alone. It maybe wasn’t my own decision, but it was the wisest one.

 _“Is my aura still as dark as before?”_ I asked, starting to varnish my toenails.

_“Of course it is, if it was possible, I think it would be even darker.”_

_“Good.”_ I whispered.

 _“Seriously? What’s good about this? Shouldn’t you try to find some light?”_ asked the demon, sitting on the edge of the bed, his silver eyes watching my hands moving as I painted my nails in black.

 _“There’s no light for me out there, Reita.”_ I replied, looking up at him.

I got a questioning look in response. I put the bottle away, being finished with my toenails, and leaned back on the headboard. I looked at my tattooed hands, I didn’t even have to varnish my nails anymore, somehow they were naturally black now. It certainly had something to do with my nature slowly changing. The nails were slightly longer, looking like claws more than human nails. Maybe my demonic side was getting stronger, who knew what really was going on inside of me? If I, myself, didn’t know it, who possibly could?

 _“I don’t know what kind of demon you are, but in my case, I was surrounded by death from the very beginning.”_ I continued, locking eyes with him.

My yellow irises didn’t seem to disturb him, though they should have, because I used to have blood-red eyes.

 _“My family isn’t any better than yours, I think.”_ he said.

 _“How can you be so sure?”_ I softly smiled.

 _“Well, how can you be so sure it’s not?”_ he replied, a playful glint in his eyes.

I slowly nodded my head and once again looked at his wings. He still was way more different than me. Actually, I had nothing to prove I was some sort of demon. I didn’t have horns, wings or a tail. Even Aoi, as an incubus, actually had wings if he wanted, but me… I looked pretty much human. What made me different from humans were my fangs, yellow eyes and now claw-like nails.

The blonde suddenly got up, startling me a little.

 _“You’re right, I should go.”_ he said, his eyes cold now.

I just shrugged and watched him walking out of the room, his tail waving behind him in a way that made me believe that he just hid his emotions as much as possible with that mask of his, but it only covered his face, not the rest. His body was betraying him, and he certainly knew it, which was the reason why he was leaving so quickly.

I sighed and laid on my back, staring at the ceiling. Tomorrow would be exactly like today, how long would I have to go with this?


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a native speaker.

_“Hey guys, ready for the Halloween party?”_

The brunette grunted as he heard Hiroto’s question. What had Yasuhiro in mind when he decided to throw a Halloween party tonight? It was 31st of October, right, but Kai didn’t see the purpose of such a party, they all already were kind of freaks of nature. Halloween only was for humans. Anyway, he could say whatever he wanted, they already all had their outfits for the night. Actually there were a few humans in the camp, and they were excited about the upcoming night. Kai was slightly worried about it though, the party was only for the older students, which meant over 15 years old, but he was kind of sure some younger students would try to enter the party, which would be held in the gymnasium. He also was worried about people like Aoi and Uruha, if they got to drink alcohol, they would definitely lose it, and they were dangerous. Aoi fed on souls by having sex after all –and he was convincing when he wanted to get laid–, while Uruha directly sucked blood out of people.

 _“I’m coming dressed as a mummy, isn’t it going to be weird? Mummies don’t even exist.”_ wondered Hiroto.

 _“Well, Halloween is about things that don’t exist in humans’ minds, so being a mummy should be fine.”_ replied Shou, kissing Hiroto on the cheek as he spoke.

Kai rolled his eyes as he witnessed the affection Shou was showering Hiroto with. Those two had been together since Ruki’s disappearance, and they already looked like they’d been dating for months. Kai thought Shou would be uncomfortable with it, being a fallen angel, but it seemed like he enjoyed it a lot. He must have lost, or at least put aside, what he had been taught since his birth in Heaven. The brunette didn’t know why Shou had fallen though, nobody knew, not even Hiroto, but it wasn’t really a big deal. Everyone had its place here, no matter if they were pure or corrupted beings. Hiroto had already confessed killing a lot of humans when he still lived in the sea, only to protect his kingdom. Mermen and mermaids were fierce, many thought they were just good at singing and swimming around, but their singing was really dangerous, it lured people in doing things they didn’t plan to, which most of the time ended with their death.

_“What about you Kai, how will you be dressed?”_

The brunette shot a smile at his friends, just to hide how deep he had been in his thoughts.

 _“Yasuhiro got me a kind of military uniform.”_ he answered, scratching his scalp.

 _“A military uniform? That’s… simple.”_ frowned Shou.

_“Maybe, but I really didn’t want something complicated to wear so…”_

_“Why am I a mummy…?”_

The two teenagers laughed as Hiroto kept on wondering why he had to wear such a weird costume when Kai had a simple one.

 _“I’m going as an angel, I mean, a pure one.”_ said Shou, fidgeting in his armchair.

Both Hiroto and Kai looked at the angel, slightly surprised. They hadn’t expected him to come dressed that way, wouldn’t it make him uneasy? Everybody knew he was a fallen angel, there was no way to mistake it; Shou had the sigil of his sin just under where his collarbones met, and his wings’ feathers were black, not white. In fact, Shou had directly fallen here when he had been thrown out of Heaven, so they had all seen him crashing on the ground, in a state that shouldn’t be reminded.

 _“Will you be ok?”_ asked Hiroto, slightly worried.

 _“Yeah, I just have to wear a bracelet to have that appearance.”_ mumbled Shou, looking down now.

 _“It’s going to be fine, it’s Halloween and if you really don’t feel comfortable, you just need to take the bracelet off, it’s easy.”_ finally said Kai, smiling reassuringly at the fallen angel.

The other smiled back, nodding a little. The brunette looked out and noticed the sunset, he had to meet Yasuhiro. He stood up and walked out of the dorm, the two lovers didn’t ask anything as they were used to Kai having meetings with the headmaster, though they had no idea what those meetings were about.

“Hey Kai, where are you going?”

He sighed when he heard someone calling out to him. He looked to his right and noticed Reita and Uruha sitting at their usual spot, by the pond. He smiled, though he really had a hard time lately to fake smiles, and walked over to them. They were both having a smoke from what he could see, and Reita had his wings out.

 _“Meeting with Yasuhiro.”_ he simply replied.

 _“You see him a lot lately, is everything alright?”_ asked Uruha, his intense hazelnut-coloured gaze set on the brunette.

_“Everything’s fine, it’s not really about me.”_

Reita frowned as he heard his friend’s answer. He suspected Kai from hiding things from them, things that were way more important than his species. The demon really didn’t mind it, after all nobody knew what kind of demon he was, but lately Kai seemed slightly on edge, forcing smiles and looking around as if something would attack him or what.

_“It has something to do with Ruki, hasn’t it?”_

Both Kai and Uruha looked at Reita, not expecting him to bring up that subject. The vampire was perfectly aware of where Ruki was, Reita had ended up telling him. That night, three days ago, Reita had come back to the dorm around four in the morning, but hadn’t gone unnoticed. Uruha was in the kitchen at the time to get something to drink, and he directly had smelled blood coming from Reita, as well as a strange smell that seemed to be the one of a decaying body. The honey-blonde had directly cornered his best friend and forced him to talk. He had kind of been disgusted hearing he had eaten a heart with the midget, but at the same time it didn’t surprise him, he was the only one to know what really was Reita after all. However, he really didn’t expect Ruki to be like that. Of course, he had felt that the small blonde wasn’t the calm type like he tried to make others believe, but he hadn’t expect him to kill people in cold blood. Even him, as a vampire, avoided killing the people he drank from. From what Reita had told him, Ruki was a demon, but there was something more to it that the he couldn’t quite grasp. He had told Uruha about the tattoos, and that had brought painful childhood memories to the vampire.

 _“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”_ replied Kai, looking away as he did so.

 _“Kai, it’s useless to lie to us, we both can hear your heartbeat speeding up.”_ sighed Uruha.

The brunette bit his lower lip, he always forgot how those two were always aware of people’s body reactions.

 _“What do you know about Ruki?”_ he finally inquired, sitting on the grass in front of them.

The two best friends glanced at each other before turning their attention back to Kai.

 _“We both know where he is.”_ said Reita, stubbing out his cigarette on the ground before putting the butt back into the pack.

 _“Well, Reita looked for him and found him.”_ Uruha precised. _“He told me only because I forced him to.”_

 _“Wait, you two know where he is? How come the spell didn’t push you away?”_ frowned Kai.

 _“What spell? I got there easily, I had nothing to do besides finding the trapdoor.”_ replied the demon.

_“Shit.”_

Kai sprang to his feet, the two others following the movement, though slightly surprised.

 _“What is it?”_ asked the vampire.

 _“He might be out… He might be fucking out! He’s gonna kill someone!”_ the brunette said, completely ignoring the others.

He dashed to the school building, sending a message to Yasuhiro to tell him he had an emergency with Ruki, though the headmaster needn’t worry for now, Kai would first check if his worries were justified.

He walked downstairs, almost tripping as he did. He really was worried about what Ruki could possibly do if he had noticed the spell didn’t work anymore. The brunette pushed away the piece of furniture that hid the trapdoor and opened it quickly before jumping in the dark. He rushed to Ruki’s room, trying to get used to the darkness surrounding him. He could hear music coming from there, which slightly reassured him, the demon seemed to still be there. When he was awake, Ruki always listened to music. Kai slammed the door open and sighed in relief as he saw the demon, though in a situation he would have preferred not to witness. Only then did he notice both Reita and Uruha running after him, getting inside the room too.

_“Don’t–”_

Too late. He had tried to keep them out, but he had been too slow for that. He watched as Uruha’s face turned red from embarrassment, eyes growing wide. His gaze then went to Reita, who actually seemed unbothered, nothing like his best friend.

 _“Really guys? Can’t you see I’m busy?”_ asked Ruki, a moan escaping his lips just after that was said.

✡✡✡

I glared at Kai, knowing it was his fault for the two others to be here too. Why had the brunette rushed here anyway? I couldn’t get out of here as far as I knew, he didn’t have to worry about anything.

_“Is he like the other day’s guy, Ruki?”_

A loud moan made its way out through my slightly parted lips as my prostate was hit several times frenetically.

_“Because seriously, if you just want to have sex, go to Aoi.”_

I groaned, certain I wouldn’t be let alone now that they were here. Reita was a jerk, again. Why couldn’t they just get out and let me finish things off? It wouldn’t have taken long anyway. I slid off the man I was riding, making him groan in displeasure, and slapped him across the face, making his head jerk to the side, a loud _‘crack’_ following the gesture. I wasn’t even excited anymore, Reita’s comment had made every ounce of arousal leave my body. I got off the bed and slipped on a crimson red silk robe.

 _“What a spoilsport.”_ I groaned, arranging my messy hair with my hands.

I turned around and glared daggers at the three men.

 _“What do you want, Kai? It had to be important to interrupt me.”_ I asked, sitting on the couch, crossing my legs.

Uruha was slowly getting his pale complexion back, it still surprised me how he could be so embarrassed by sex. It was something natural, there was nothing to be ashamed of.

I glanced at Reita and a smirk made its way to my lips.

 _“If you want to taste him, go for it. He’s not bad and he’s still warm.”_ I said, pointing at the dead man on the bed.

 _“It was only once, Ruki.”_ the demon replied, crossing his arms.

I hummed, I had expected an answer like this. I was quite convinced that Reita wasn’t really the type to eat humans, that night was just an exception. I didn’t expect much from the demon, he was like all the others, trying to follow the morals the emperor had tried to impose on us. With the centuries passing, it had kind of worked, and we lived in the open, with the humans as if everything was normal. But honestly… It was impossible for me to follow those rules. They were against my nature. And the emperor himself wasn’t any better, the war he had started was useless, it came from his selfishness. He didn’t think about his people anymore, he just thought about himself, he even had started killing humans for his own entertainment, like former rulers used to do. He had nothing to do with the emperor he used to be in the beginning, the one who loved humans as much as supernatural creatures. Of course, I didn’t know that emperor, I only knew the greedy for power man. My family had told me about his former-self.

 _“Kai, would you get rid of him now that you’re here?”_ I asked, looking at the dead body with disgust all over my face.

 _“Believe me, one day you’ll have to do that yourself, I won’t be around all the time.”_ sighed the brunette, walking to the bed.

 _“You know, you two can sit, nothing’s going to jump out of nowhere to eat you up.”_ I said, looking at Reita and Uruha.

Uruha glanced at Reita desperately, but the demon was already walking to me to sit on the couch. I showed an armchair to the vampire, and he finally gave up, sighing heavily as he went to sit there. I looked at Kai who was busy drawing runes on the human. Normally he did that before they came here, so it was easier for him to dispose of them, but this human had been a complete surprise, so he hadn’t done it.

 _“Ugh, Kai, it stinks, are you burning him?”_ I asked, pinching my noise.

 _“You killed him, I have to mark him differently because he’s dead. It would have been easier if you just had knocked him out.”_ growled the brunette.

 _“Than you shouldn’t have rushed in the room, knock before entering.”_ I huffed.

 _“It never bothered you when I walked into you having sex.”_ retorted the other.

_“Yeah, well, that’s because you’re usually alone. This time you brought two nuisances along with you.”_

He didn’t reply to this. I sighed and rested my head in my hand, the armrest as a support to my elbow. I never thought I’d get close to the apparently shy Kai, but actually, he was putting an act in this school, the same way I did, the same way everyone did as a matter of fact. Kai was linked to my family, somehow. His clan had worked for mine for a few centuries now, though they considered each other as equals. They worked in the shadows, not even the emperor knew about them. In a way, we mutually protected each other. My clan made sure the emperor stayed oblivious about the Uke family’s existence, while in return, they made sure our enemies didn’t come after us. Here for example, Kai made sure my presence went unnoticed when the emperor or his people looked for me in the neighbourhood. They couldn’t sense me thanks to Kai’s spells.

I was about to say something when my phone started ringing. I frowned and got up, taking it out of the nightstand’s drawer.

_“Hello.”_

_“Ruki, what do you think of Halloween?”_

I frowned even more as I heard Yasuhiro’s question. Why was he calling me for such a trivial matter? I didn’t care about Halloween, it was something humans did only, what was the purpose in dressing into a monster when you already were one either way?

 _“I don’t care about Halloween, Yasuhiro. It’s human shit.”_ I replied.

Kai snapped his fingers and the body immediately disappeared. I silently thanked him as I listened to Yasuhiro’s reply.

 _“I thought it would be a test for you to see if you can get out of there.”_ he said.

 _“A test? Yasuhiro, there’s nothing to test. I’m the same as before, it’s not because I make deals with idiots that I changed.”_ I sighed.

_“That’s what you think. Let’s see how you’ll react in a crowded place.”_

_“Well, this room is already kinda crowded. People keep on coming and going, feels like if I were in a brothel.”_ I groaned.

It seriously felt like it. Each time someone came, I was in the middle of something, and they would just end up watching me. This time it was Kai, Reita and Uruha. But there was a few times when it only was Kai, and also times when it actually was Yasuhiro. That was slightly embarrassing, I had to admit it. That man could be my father after all.

 _“You could say you’re a whore, at least not far from it.”_ said Reita, smirking at me.

 _“Shut up, noseless.”_ I retorted, sticking my tongue out.

 _“You’re behaving like a brat, Ruki.”_ frowned Kai, sitting next to Reita.

 _“Well, he is a brat.”_ said Uruha.

 _“You’re my age, don’t act all cocky just because you’re a vampire.”_ I growled.

 _“I can hear you’re quite busy now.”_ Yasuhiro said, slightly giggling. _“Anyway, I’ll come by with your outfit in an hour and then you’ll be able to go to the party.”_

He directly ended the call before I could even protest.

 _“A Halloween party? Really?”_ I frowned, throwing my phone on the bed.

 _“Same reaction.”_ sighed Kai, tilting his head back, his gaze set on the ceiling.

 _“You’ll be able to get out, aren’t you happy?”_ asked Uruha, his eyes following each of my moves.

I plumped down on my bed, scratching the back of my neck.

 _“I’ve everything I need here, and I’m really not looking forward to Yasuhiro following me everywhere.”_ I replied.

_“I don’t think he would bother you that much.”_

_“Yeah… You weren’t caught having sex by him, that’s why you think that way. He kept on nagging me about it for days.”_ I sighed. _“Like I shouldn’t do that, I’d get hurt badly and this and that… Ugh.”_

 _“Yasuhiro wouldn’t be like that to you, he’s nothing to do with you.”_ frowned the vampire.

 _“He’s doing what my father never did.”_ I said, rolling my eyes.

Kai burst into laughter as I said so. He knew perfectly how my family was, and he knew how they didn’t care about my sex life, as long as it didn’t come in the way of my job. He also knew they actually had encouraged me to have sex with the targets so it would be easier to kill them afterwards. Actually, I was seriously not far from a hooker, when I thought about it.

 _“I still can’t believe your parents brought an incubus into your room and let you both there so you’d have your first time with a man.”_ the brunette said, still laughing.

 _“You’re laughing, but seriously, go be in my situation, I was fucking 12.”_ I grumbled.

He ignored my remark as he kept on giggling.

 _“Oh, and actually, you can’t say much mister virgin.”_ I smirked.

That directly stopped him. Reita and Uruha were both gaping at us, their eyes going from me to Kai.

“You know, I still have some hard time believing you really never did it with anyone. I mean… Come on, you’re working for my family, they make everyone have sex, just in case it’s needed for a job.”

Kai was blushing like a mad man. I turned to Uruha and my smirked widened, now that I had started, let’s just say everything. The vampire really was pissing me off with his reactions.

 _“And you… You’re even worse than Kai. Even just mentioning sex makes you blush, which is the reaction of a kid, not a virgin teenager.”_ I said.

_“I don’t–”_

_“Just go to Aoi to have your cherry popped, or ask Reita, he's your best friend, no hard feeling afterwards.”_ I said, smiling cheekily at the demon.

 _“I won’t have sex with someone just… For sex. Feelings are important.”_ almost yelled the vampire, his eyes turning red.

_“Really? Believe me, once you’ve done it, you don’t think about feelings, you just think about the pleasure you’ll get.”_

_“Ruki, maybe you should stop.”_ intervened Kai.

 _“Why? I’m just being honest. Feelings and relationships are a weakness.”_ I frowned.

I really didn’t get what was their problem with this thing about feelings. It linked you to someone, it restrained you, it was like being in a cage. It must have felt awful to be in love.

 _“That’s only your opinion, have you ever been in a relationship? No, so don’t judge something you know nothing about.”_ growled Uruha, getting up.

 _“Right, I never dated anyone, and you know why? Because I saw what relationships made people do. They destroy people. Maybe you feel happy in the beginning, but after awhile, there’s nothing left but the routine, and boredom makes its way in. This leads to cheating on your partner, which triggers excitement and makes you have a new interest in your relationship, but that’s only until the other discovers it.”_ I replied.

 _“You can’t be sure of it, some people are doing great and are together until the end.”_ retorted the vampire. _“Just look at your parents, there’s still together, right? Isn’t that a sufficient proof?”_

I laughed as he mentioned my parents.

_“My parents? You want to know the truth? I’m the result of my mother sleeping with another man, the man I call ‘father’ isn’t even my real father.”_

Uruha gaped at me, not knowing what to say. That had the same effect as a bomb, I knew it because it had been the case when I had discovered it.

Ayaka had called me two nights ago, she had had some difficulties to say it because she couldn’t believe it either, but she had finally found out what was wrong with me, at least, partly. My biological father was another man, and the person to tell her that was no other than our mother. I had a hard time letting the information sink in. Honestly, I really thought my parents were the best couple to exist because they were together for already two centuries. But I had been so wrong… Ayaka couldn’t get the name of my real father, mother saying it was something she couldn’t tell. And actually, when Ayaka had asked father about it, he was aware of it. Everybody was, except for my siblings and I. I was starting to believe that it had been done on purpose, that me being another man’s child had been planned. Maybe it was, my family was capable of anything. Who knew what that man was? One thing was sure, my tattoos came from him, as well as my ability to make deals with people.

I got up and took some clothes out of my wardrobe.

 _“Now, will you excuse me, I need to take a shower.”_ I said, walking in the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind me.

✡✡✡

Kai stared at the bathroom door, his jaw could have been hanging it wouldn’t have surprised him. He didn’t expect Ruki to be the offspring of a forbidden relationship, especially seeing how Akihito, his ‘father’, treated him. Ruki had always been considered as a full member of the Matsumoto clan, each member treated him good, from the elders to the youngsters.

 _“I really didn’t expect such a thing…”_ murmured Uruha, lowering his head.

 _“None of us did.”_ Kai replied, patting the vampire’s shoulder.

 _“Somehow it makes sense.”_ said Reita, standing up from the couch.

 _“How could it make sense? It’s horrible.”_ frowned his best friend.

The blonde demon shook his head. He couldn’t stop himself from pitying Ruki, though he perfectly knew the small blonde would hate him even more if he knew about it.

 _“Uruha, I told you what I saw, it was quite obvious that he’s a hybrid.”_ sighed Reita.

Uruha slightly nodded.

 _“We should leave, I don’t think he wants to see us when he gets out of the shower.”_ said Kai, walking to the door.

 _“Yeah, you’re probably right.”_ mumbled Uruha, as he followed the brunette.

The vampire really felt bad for Ruki. Even though his family had died when he was just a child, he could perfectly remember what they had taught him. For vampires, especially for purebloods, faithfulness was really important; cheating on your partner gave him the right to actually kill you, if he wanted. So to think that Ruki wasn’t who he thought he was during his whole life, that he wasn’t the child he thought he was… The honey-blonde felt horrible. He should have kept his mouth shut, he knew it. He already had noticed how the small demon seemed to despise relationships, but now... It must have been even worse, and Uruha had just added fuel to the fire.

 _“Stop thinking that much, Uruha.”_ whispered Reita in his ear.

The vampire faintly smiled at his best friend.

_“There’s nothing you can do, you know it.”_

He nodded as they got out of the building.

 _“Hm, I guess we’ve to get ready for the party.”_ grumbled Kai, looking at the moon, which was slowly rising in the indigo sky.

 _“You really aren’t looking forward to it.”_ laughed the demon.

 _“I don’t trust Aoi on this, he’s going to drink alcohol, and you know how he is when he’s drunk.”_ replied the brunette, his eyebrows slightly furrowed.

_“I’ll keep him occupied then.”_

Both Kai and Reita gaped at Uruha as he said those words. The honey-blonde made a step back, surprised by his friends’ reaction. What were they thinking exactly? Aoi and him were close friends, he knew he could keep the incubus away from the alcohol for awhile. That would let the humans get tired and go to bed before the beast was released. He perfectly knew Aoi would have sex tonight, he had sex almost every night, even during the day actually, but that was kept secret, so nobody, except his close friends and his partners, knew about it. The raven-haired rarely went to someone’s room, he wasn’t behaving like normal incubi did actually. He still paid attention to the other’s feelings, Uruha knew it. Incubi normally didn’t care, as long as they fed… But Aoi was slightly different from his family, which was partly the reason why he hated them, at least, that was Uruha’s opinion.

 _“Stop staring at me like that, I’m just going to talk to him, away from the bar.”_ frowned the vampire.

 _“Oh… For a second I thought you meant you’d occupy him in another way.”_ nervously laughed Kai, scratching the back of his head.

Uruha’s jaw dropped as he finally understood what the two others had in mind.

_“Seriously guys? I mean, I’m not surprised by you Reita, but Kai…”_

_“Yeah… I think I spend too much time around Ruki lately.”_ muttered the brunette.

 _“Definitely.”_ both Reita and Uruha said.

They started walking again, heading to the dorm house. Reita made his wings disappear as they walked inside the living room, which was surprisingly calm. But then he heard laughter coming from upstairs. Everybody must have already started getting ready for the party. He climbed the stairs, leaving Kai and Uruha at their floor as he got to the other one. Would Ruki really come tonight? The demon wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but he couldn’t really force Yasuhiro to keep Ruki locked up, and it wasn’t his problem if the small blonde lost control. He got inside his room and greeted Aoi with a nod. Well, the incubus was dressed to kill, or more like to get laid. The blonde slightly snorted at the thought and took his outfit out of his wardrobe. _Tonight might actually be fun_ , he thought.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a native speaker.
> 
> [Ruki's costume](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-31WnrsG_iP8/U8A8JFAAYmI/AAAAAAAAASY/I0aycCqTlQ0/s1600/15.jpg) / [Maya's](http://40.media.tumblr.com/2bd3c096b4ee2e7ffa9c8fef86055626/tumblr_o1mcy3c0271qhv0fqo6_1280.jpg) / [Kai's](http://41.media.tumblr.com/b3b3d51260e716d55a15f49b7befe1f8/tumblr_nl9hk24pVQ1s0av0qo3_1280.jpg). Reita's kinda dressed normally, haha. His horns, tail and wings are enough.

I stared at myself, slightly groaning as I felt the corset compressing my ribcage. What was I dressed like anyway? What had Yasuhiro in mind when he brought me this outfit? Was he trying to make fun of me by making me wear bunny ears? He knew I didn’t have any interest in Halloween, he had without a doubt decided to piss me off by making me wear something like this. Moreover I had to use a spell in order to dye my hair black for the evening, and that couldn’t be discussed. I knew better than to argue with Yasuhiro about this kind of things. He was a big kid at times. I also had to hide my tattoos and change my yellow eyes back to their red colour, and that was a little more complicated. I had managed on my own though, but I wasn’t sure how long it would last.

I glanced at the whip on my bed. At least, if I got pissed I had something to take out my anger with. I took it and fixed it to my belt. I looked at my reflexion in the mirror one last time and finally turned around to walk towards the door of my room.

Somehow, I suddenly wasn’t convinced about this whole thing anymore. Was I really ready to go out? I was the same, sure, but I could also see the despair in people’s heart now, and that attracted me. Desperate people were great preys, and delicious souls. At times of war, there were a lot of people in such a state of mind, and I knew that it was the case for a big part of the students here. Yasuhiro wanted to test me, he wanted to see if I was capable of containing myself or not, and honestly, I didn’t know how things would turn out at all.

I walked out of the building, shivering as I felt the cold autumn breeze on my skin. Some students were walking towards the gymnasium, talking cheerfully. How could anyone be excited about this party? It just made me want to puke. I hated Halloween, it made us, supernatural creatures, ridiculous. Humans dressed as vampires, demons and so many other creatures without even knowing what was truly hidden behind our appearance. They just took into account the rumours, the prejudices. If only they knew what came with our species.

I walked in the building, and was quite surprised by what I saw. Yasuhiro had managed to create something quite nice, though not really looking like something made for Halloween. The gymnasium looked like a big nightclub, except one full with mostly underage people. From what I could see, most of the students were here, and some teachers too. I let my gaze roam around the room until I spotted the bar. Had Yasuhiro hired someone just for that? I didn’t know the bartender at all, but I could tell he was a sea creature from the gills on his neck and his bluish skin.

_“What can I get you?”_

I was about to answer, but that was when Yasuhiro appeared right next to me, cutting me off.

_“Don’t give him alcohol, it wouldn’t turn out well.”_

_“What the fuck, Yasuhiro? If you make me come here, let me at least do what I want.”_ I growled, still taking the drink the other offered.

 _“Go for it, but don’t forget this is also a test for you.”_ he replied, his golden eyes locking with mines.

 _“I’ll just give you my powers, like that you’ll see how heard it is to control yourself.”_ I mumbled, glancing at my drink with a frown.

Orange juice? I scrunched my nose, pushing the drink away.

 _“Get me some blood, that would be better.”_ I sighed.

 _“Is that okay? You’re not a vampire.”_ frowned the bartender.

 _“When it’s him it’s fine, Reno.”_ said the headmaster, patting my left shoulder as he spoke.

_“Alright.”_

I watched the tall man walk away to the other end of the bar, crouching to grab something in a small fridge.

 _“How do you like it?”_ he asked, coming back to me.

 _“What kind of question is that?”_ I frowned, though still answered. _“Human body temperature.”_

I then turned around to look at Yasuhiro, who was looking at the students dancing, a huge grin stretching his lips. I hadn’t noticed before, but he had his wings out. They seemed to be made of pure fire, which slightly scared me. I could feel heat coming from him, although a comforting one. Somehow it didn’t look like you’d get burnt by touching them, but I wouldn’t risk it anyway.

_“What do you see when you look at them?”_

I was startled by his question. The grin had faded away, letting place to worry. I looked around, analysing the students who were present. To my surprise I didn’t see any despair in their heart, just pure happiness. Maybe it was just for the evening, thanks to this party they could get their minds off what was happening out there, in the real world. It was just for one evening, but it seemed to really make them feel good, nothing from what I could see was forced.

 _“They’re enjoying themselves.”_ I replied, nodding thankfully at Reno as he handed me my drink.

_“Are they?”_

_“I know what you’re thinking about, Yasuhiro, but what I see there, is pure happiness. Of course, I don’t know how things will be tomorrow, but if you had in mind to make them forget what is happening outside the camp’s walls, even though just for one night, you succeeded.”_ I said, taking a sip of blood.

He then laughed, making me cock an eyebrow. Was he loosing it or what?

_“Since when can you analyse people’s hearts so accurately? You’re supposed to be an indifferent little bastard.”_

_“Why thank you for the compliment.”_ I chuckled.

_“I’m serious here Ruki, are actually starting to change?”_

I shrugged, not really knowing what to answer. I looked at the entrance to see Uruha, Reita, Aoi and Kai walk in. My eyes went wide as I noticed Uruha’s clothes. Was he wearing a fucking miniskirt? From seeing him dressed all in black and purple as a sexy vixen, I really didn’t have to complain about my outfit anymore, though I still could feel my ribcage being compressed by the corset. This piece of clothing seriously could be used for torture.

_“Ruki, change isn’t bad you know, to start feeling things is a good thing, it means you’re still humane.”_

Yasuhiro’s voice stopped my mind from going any further. I glanced at him, my gaze hardening directly.

 _“Feelings aren’t something an assassin can have, Yasuhiro.”_ I replied, my voice sharper, colder, than before. _“Those are a weakness, they make you hesitate at the worst moment.”_

 _“You’d be surprised…”_ he trailed off, his smile coming back as my ‘friends’ walked to us.

I didn’t even bother smiling, not seeing the purpose in faking something. From what I knew, the only one who had no idea of what had happened to me was Aoi, but I couldn’t be so sure about it. The three others might have as well told him what I was, or at least, what they thought I was from what they had seen.

The incubus was wearing tight black leather-trousers, though his pale skin clearly visible on the sides of his legs, from his hips to his ankles. Laces tied his trousers from the top the bottom. He wore a fishnet top, leaving nothing to the imagination as I could clearly see his torso through it. His wings were out, as well as… _a tail_? Since when did incubi have tails?

 _“Hey Ruki, I was wondering where you had disappeared!”_  Aoi said, throwing an arm over my shoulders, almost making me spill my drink.

I could feel his tail nudging against my right thigh, making me roll my eyes. What he was trying to do was quite obvious, and I wouldn’t fall for it, not when I hadn’t had a few drinks at least. Yasuhiro really thought I would go on without alcohol for the whole evening?

 _“Ask our dear headmaster here.”_ I groaned, slapping his tail away as it went higher.

I glanced at Kai who’s stare was set on Aoi’s tail, the incubus didn’t seem to get that I wasn’t in the same mood as him.

 _“I’m going to leave you guys, have some fun.”_ said Yasuhiro, straightening up. _“And you Ruki, don’t forget what this is about.”_

I just nodded in response, grabbing Aoi’s tail this time as I felt it nudging my pelvis.

 _“Do you have a death wish, Aoi?”_ I asked, slightly pulling on his tail.

 _“I’m just welcoming you back my own way.”_ he grinned.

I shook my head, sighing heavily. I looked at the others who all had gotten a drink, Uruha having blood just like me. I stood up and headed to a corner where there were sofas surrounding coffee tables. Somehow I had the feeling it was better to keep Aoi away from alcohol, thus from the bar.

I set my glass on a table and plumped down on a couch, Aoi soon joining me on the right, Uruha sitting on my left. Reita and Kai were sitting on the other side of the table. I was surprised to find Uruha next to me, I didn’t think he would sit so close after what had happened a few hours ago. I glanced at his legs. I hadn’t noticed but he actually had garters. How could he be comfortable wearing those clothes? It was worse than my corset without a doubt. I definitely wouldn’t feel at ease wearing such a short skirt, and garters moreover.

 _“I’ve been thinking about something, Aoi.”_ I said, looking at the incubus.

 _“Ah? What could that be?”_ he asked, still grinning.

_“Why didn’t you sleep with Uruha or Kai, or both even?”_

I noticed Kai’s cheeks reddening, which made me laugh. I didn’t even have to look at Uruha to know that he was in the same state as the brunet.

 _“Why didn’t I sleep with them?”_ repeated the incubus, looking surprised.

_“They’re both virgins, I guess you can sense that quite easily, so why didn’t you go for it? Aren’t virgins what incubi love the most?”_

He softly hummed, glancing at both the vampire and the other. A soft smile finally stretched his lips, one I didn’t get to often see when it came to Aoi. He was the type to smirk, or to grin like an idiot. Not the type to smile so gently. He always thought about sex, or sex-related things, so it was rare to have him seem so… normal? Was normal even the word?

 _“They’re friends.”_ he replied, looking back at me.

I raised an eyebrow.

 _“So I’m not a friend.”_ I stated before taking another sip of my drink.

 _“What? No! Of course you are a friend!”_ he rushed to say.

 _“You just said you wouldn’t sleep with them because they’re your friends, though you keep on trying to get into my pants, so it’s kinda obvious what you think about me.”_ I continued, a smirk slowly stretching my plump red lips.

It was funny to see him struggle like this. I didn’t really care about how he saw me, I just was wondering why he, an incubus, wouldn’t go for it with Uruha and Kai. Both of them were attractive, having their own charms, and over all, they were virgins, and I was pretty sure incubi actually hunted those down.

 _“Don’t worry, I don’t really care whether you see me as a friend or not.”_ I said, patting his left thigh. _“It’s just that those two piss me of with their reactions. They should loosen up a little, and getting the D would help them.”_

 _“No way, just stop with this, Ruki!”_ groaned Uruha, slapping me behind the head.

 _“I’m serious here, the way you reacted earlier today made it quite clear.”_ I replied, rubbing the back of my head, which slightly hurt because of his slap.

 _“Earlier?”_ asked Aoi, seeming interested.

 _“Those three,”_ I started, glaring at Reita, Kai and Uruha. _“Walked into me having sex a few hours ago.”_

Aoi just laughed at that, almost folded in half, holding his stomach.

_“I guess Reita made you lose any arousal, right?”_

I groaned in response, glaring at the demon who was sitting across me. He just shrugged in response, drinking the last drops of his drink.

 _“Well, you know, we can’t do much about how they react, they’re how they are.”_ finally said Aoi, having regained some of his composure.

 _“So you won’t sleep with them.”_ I sighed.

_“It’s not–”_

Aoi couldn’t finish as someone cut him off, making him frown. I looked up to see who had called out my name, because that was what had made him stop talking. I shivered as I met a cold golden gaze.

_“Maya?”_

His hair had been dyed in black, just like mine, and he wore some sort of traditional clothes, and I knew those actually were from his empire, not from this one. He was dressed like royalty, which he indeed was, though I wouldn’t think he would expose himself like this. Of course no one would make the link at a party like this one, but still, he was risking a lot by being dressed this way.

He had changed. His facial features were sharper, his eyes cold, the friendly way they used to gleam with seemed to have completely disappeared, and the way he held himself made me feel so small next to him. Right now, he looked like the proper heir to the throne of his empire, and that sort of worried me. Maya had never been like that, even when we had met for the first time, when he had only been in contact with preceptors and high-ranked people, he always had been the seemingly carefree boy I came to appreciate.

My eyes widened as I noticed something on his right shoulder, though he quickly covered it with his red cape, noticing my stare. He couldn’t be serious, that symbol… What did he have in mind? He could be such an idiot at times!

 _“Nice to finally see you, Ruki.”_ the prince smirked.

I didn’t know what to say. This kind of Maya wasn’t the kind I was used to, I didn’t know what to do when he was in such a state. He felt so faraway, he was different from the prince I knew, completely different. I couldn’t even grasp one familiar thing in his behaviour, aura.

 _“Sorry I didn’t call you.”_ I said, glancing at Reita.

I should have done what I had said I’d do when the demon first came to see me, I should have called my best friend at the time. It was shocking to see how Maya had changed in such a short lapse. It hadn’t even been two weeks, and the fae had drastically changed. Now that I paid more attention to what was around him, I noticed a boy behind him, one I had never seen before. Was he new? He had long silver hair and bright blue eyes. He was dressed all in red leather, his lips of a similar shade to mine. He was taller than me, but he didn’t reach Maya’s height. Who was he?

 _“That’s Aryu, if you wonder who he is.”_ said Maya, certainly noticing the way I stared at the other.

The boy smiled at me, revealing fangs. I looked at Uruha, who had narrowed his eyes. Did he know that him? I surely didn’t, and Aoi, Kai and Reita didn’t seem to want to intervene. He must have come around when I was locked in the school basement, there was no other possible explanation.

I stood up, though it didn’t really help me to get rid of that feeling of inferiority that Maya made me feel.

 _“We need to talk Maya.”_ I said, locking eyes with him once again.

 _“Do we? I don’t have the feeling I have much to say to you Ruki, though you might want to tell who you truly are to those ones.”_ he replied, looking disdainfully at the four males who were still sitting in the couches.

 _“You might want to know this Maya.”_ I sighed, rubbing my temples.

What the hell had happened to him? Maya was a sweetheart, not a fucking haughty bitch.

He looked at me, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, but finally nodded.

 _“Alright, let’s talk.”_ he sighed before turning to Aryu. _“Have fun, I think you’ll be able to have some.”_

I glanced at Kai who seemed as shocked as I was by Maya’s change of behaviour. Kai had watched me my whole life, thus he had observed Maya too, he knew him the same way I did, maybe even better as he had arrived here before me.

I shook my head and followed the fae outside the gym. If I had known things would be like this, I’d have stayed in my room, it would have spared me the headache.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo! I finally updated this fanfic! I don't know why it took me so long, but it just didn't want to come. I really had a heard time writing, though I perfectly knew where I was going.
> 
> Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a native speaker.

We walked behind the gymnasium, away from prying eyes. As I walked behind him, I could see that his way of walking had changed too. I sighed as I thought about whom it reminded me of; his parents. He walked graciously, just like his mother, but at the same time his steps were assertive, just like his father.

In a way, I didn’t like what I saw there. The Maya I knew didn’t want to have anything to do with the empire, he didn’t want to become the emperor, he was even ready to give up on his status, if it weren’t for his love for his parents and younger sister. If he abandoned the empire, his sister would have to be the one to be educated as a proper future ruler, and because he had been through it, he knew it would be too much for her. I was quite sure that if he had had a brother instead, he wouldn’t have behaved the same way.

 _“So, tell me, what should I know?”_ he asked, turning around to face me.

I stopped walking and looked up to gaze in his golden eyes. I snapped my fingers, knowing it would undo the spell that hid my tattoos and my eyes true colour.

 _“What’s new about this? I already saw you with yellow eyes, okay your pupils changed shape but it doesn’t help me much. And your tattoos aren’t new to me either, I was the one to see them when they spread for the first time.”_ he said, his eyes still deprived of any emotions.

 _“Well, I guess you can be happy.”_ I replied, not breaking the eye contact once.

 _“About what?”_ he frowned.

_“You were right.”_

_“Again, about what?”_ he asked, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

_“My mother had me with another guy.”_

His frown deepened until he understood what it had to do with him. He was the one to bring up the idea of me having another father than my mother’s husband, and in the end, he was right.

 _“So your mother cheated on your father?”_ he asked, his head tilted to the side.

I slightly shrugged and walked past him to sit on a bench.

 _“Yes and no, everybody in the family knew besides me and my siblings.”_ I replied, looking up at the night sky.

_“Who told you then? Your mother has always been pretty secretive about your nature, so why would she tell you now that you’re probably a hybrid?”_

Maya sat next to me, his cape draped around him to shield him from the cold wind.

_“Ayaka told me, she asked mother and I think she felt cornered so… She finally said it.”_

I noticed a shooting star. I cocked an eyebrow, it wasn’t the season for this right now.

_“So, who is he?”_

I glanced at Maya, he wasn’t looking at me, he had his head tilted to back, resting on the wall behind us, and his eyes were closed. When he was like that I could see my best friend, but I was quite sure that if he opened his eyes, this feeling would directly wear off.

 _“I don’t know, she didn’t want to tell Ayaka.”_ I replied, looking at his right shoulder.

His cape was covering it so I couldn’t see if what I had seen earlier was true or just my mind playing tricks on me. I wanted to ask him if it was what I thought, but at the same time… Who was I to judge? It wasn’t as bad as me eating souls and killing people in cold blood anyway so…

_“How did you react?”_

_“Not like you, that’s for sure.”_ I groaned.

He seemed so calm, so indifferent. I’d have told him that before my disappearance, he would have been shocked, but now, he just seem to not care at all. Not that I actually was any different, but it didn’t suit him to be this way.

 _“What do you mean?”_ he asked, opening his right eye to look at me.

 _“I lost it when Ayaka told me the truth. Honestly, if she or mother had been in front of me at the time, she would be dead by now.”_ I replied, chewing the inside of my bottom lip.

 _“Did Aoi’s training even helped one bit?”_ he frowned, both eyes opened now.

 _“It did, until the day I collapsed and then disappeared.”_ I grumbled, rubbing my hands on my knees as the cold wind blew.

I could feet a weird tingling sensation in my thighs, and that didn’t mean anything good. I thought I’d be spared there but it seemed like I wished for too much.

I startled as I felt Maya’s arm surround my shoulders, bringing me closer to him and under his cape. I hadn’t taken something warm to wear over my corset and the light jacket I wore, this was stupid knowing that we were end of October. I wasn’t a big fan of human contacts, sex being an exception, so normally I wouldn’t let myself being hugged like this, but it was Maya, and it brought me warmth so I couldn’t possibly refuse and push him away.

 _“What happened the day you disappeared, Ruki? Reita told me he talked with you but didn’t want to see about what.”_ said the fae.

“He saw right through me.” I answered, looking blankly ahead.

_“What do you mean?”_

I heaved a sigh, not sure whether it was a good idea to say it or not.

 _“I eat souls, Maya.”_ I said, my eyes not leaving the invisible spot I had made myself look at.

_“Wait, what?”_

I could feel him shifting in his spot, then slowly moving away from me, his arm leaving my shoulder, though he still left a part of his cape on me.

 _“I eat souls, I make deals with people who want a loved one back from the dead, and if they don’t respect the contract, then I eat their souls.”_ I explained, now turning my head to look at him.

His eyes had grown wide, but I still didn’t see fear in them. Shock, yes, but not fear. Then it turned to worry, and that surprised me. His gaze had softened, it wasn’t the same as before when we were around the others, it was warmer, it was one that corresponded to the Maya I knew since I was a child.

 _“Reita saw your tattoos on your hands.”_ he said.

 _“I know, he actually saw my tattoos one my whole body.”_ I chuckled.

_“What?”_

_“He found me the day he talked to you, and… Well, I was naked.”_ I said, slightly smiling.

 _“He found you? Why didn’t he tell me?”_ growled Maya, standing up.

I stood up too, grabbing his arm to prevent him from going meet and confront Reita about this story.

 _“He couldn’t tell you, Maya, he shouldn’t even have found me in the first place. The only people who knew where I was were Kai and Yasuhiro at the time.”_ I hurriedly said, not wanting the fae to create a commotion about this.

_“Kai? What does he have to do with this?”_

_“He’s from the Uke clan.”_

I could feel him slowly relaxing. I sighed in relief, letting go of his arm. Maya was the only person outside my family to know about Kai’s family existence, and it had to stay that way as long as we had this idiot of emperor.

_“I want to see your tattoos.”_

I frowned, why would he want to see them? There was nothing special about them, they kept appearing randomly on my body, that was all, they had no hidden meaning, except saying that I actually wasn’t a full-blood Matsumoto.

 _“Ruki, those are tribal tattoos, if they aren’t from your mother’s family, then they are from your real father’s one.”_ sighed Maya, shaking his head slightly.

 _“It’s not like I wanted to come to this party anyway.”_ I mumbled.

He softly laughed, making me smile a little. His laugh had stayed the same.

 _“We can go to my room, like that you’ll see where I’ve been this whole time.”_ I said, starting to walk.

We walked past the gym’s entrance when going to the school building, and that’s when I noticed Aryu standing before it, a smug smile stretching his red lips. There was a dangerous gleam in his blue eyes, a predatory one. I had to ask Maya about that guy, he didn’t inspire me confidence; there was something fishy about this situation. Maya wouldn’t trust someone just like that, he knew better than to do such a reckless thing. As an heir to the throne of this empire’s enemy, he had to be careful about who he saw.

I growled at Aryu as the silver haired tried to come near us.

 _“Stay away.”_ I said, showing my fangs.

 _“I told you to have fun Aryu, stop following me like a lost puppy.”_ sighed Maya, massaging his forehead.

_“But Ma–”_

_“You heard him, stop roaming around him.”_ I cut him off.

He took a few steps back. A last growl, more threatening this time, escaped my lips before I turned around, heading to the school building. Too clingy, this boy was way too clingy. Nobody was like this naturally, he had to have some hidden motives. I took my phone out of my pocket and dialled Kai’s number as I walked in the building.

_“Ruki, where are you?”_

_“I’ve to do some things with Maya, but I have a request, Kai.”_ I said, looking behind me to be sure the fae was following me.

 _“What is it?”_ sighed the brunet.

_“Could you keep a close eye on Aryu? And maybe do some researches? This guy gives me a strange feeling, there’s something wrong with him.”_

_“Uruha already told us that he was a vampire, and without you asking me to do this I’d have done it.”_ replied Kai.

 _“Why?”_ I frowned.

_“He’s one of the emperor’s hirelings.”_

I stopped in my tracks when I heard that, almost dropping my phone. He was under the emperor’s orders? How could he get in here? How could this happen? Didn’t Yasuhiro check everyone’s past before letting them in the school grounds?

 _“Are you sure?”_ I asked, opening the trapdoor that led the hidden basement.

_“Uruha’s sure about what he’s saying. He didn’t tell us how he could be that convinced, but you and I both know how that’s possible.”_

I bit my lower lip. Of course I knew. Uruha was a Takashima, he without a doubt knew a few of the emperor’s secrets, and vampire families often met so he certainly had already met Aryu in the past.

_“Uruha told us that his eye colour as well as his hair are typical from one family, that’s all he’s inclined to say.”_

_“That’s enough for now, but if you find that shit sticking his nose in anything related to us, you don’t let him go, Kai.”_ I said.

_“No problem.”_

_“And if it happens, we will have to ask more details to Uruha, even if this means torture him.”_ I groaned, opening the door to my bedroom.

_“Ruk–”_

_“I’m not joking here, Kai. My life is at stake with an imperial spy around, as well as Maya’s. You fucking failed at your job!”_ I cut him off, throwing my bunny ears on the ground.

I heard him sigh. If he thought I wouldn’t go for the hard way with Uruha just because he was some sort of friend, he was completely wrong. And I might as well do something to him if he didn’t find a solution, if he had done his job correctly, this wouldn’t have happened.

 _“Kai, I tortured and killed a few Takashimas in the past, don’t think I won’t do it again.”_ I stated before switching my phone off.

I threw it on my bed before turning around, meeting Maya’s eyes. He had his head tilted to the side and a small smirk was stretching his plump lips.

 _“So you really did take part to the Takashima clan’s slaughter.”_ he said, fishing a lollipop out of some hidden pocket.

I opened my mouth just to close it. I had gotten carried away, this was supposed to stay hidden, even in our clan not everybody knew about it, and here I was, saying it out loud when I was with Maya. I was in deep shit right now, but so was he.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I updated quite quickly, haha. I was inspired I guess.  
> This chapter was shorter, I know, but somehow I wanted to end it here, haha. It was quite obvious that Aryu meant bad news, wasn't it? I really don't know when the 9th chapter will be ready though, so you'll need patience, just like it was for the seventh chapter, hehe.
> 
> Ah, and that Ruki was linked to the massacre of Uruha's family was quite obvious too, right?


End file.
